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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25230832">What About Me?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChoiAnnie/pseuds/ChoiAnnie'>ChoiAnnie</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Confusion, Drama, Genin Era, Humor, Love, Love/Hate, Minor Character Death, Multi, Romance</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 02:49:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>23,017</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25230832</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChoiAnnie/pseuds/ChoiAnnie</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sakura has an accident. No one knows what happened, not even her. Naruto and Sasuke make a promise to look after their teammate, but Sasuke is not really sure how to keep it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Haruno Sakura &amp; Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>71</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>168</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Introduction</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>Sasuke has always been a determined person, with very clear objectives ahead and even clearer methods of achieving them step by step. He is very patient, too, and also probably the most focused, disciplined and intelligent genin in the entire Leaf Village.</p>
<p>He has always been aware of all this. <em>Seriously</em> aware of it, actually.</p>
<p>And this time, in particular, it has not been any different. On the opposite, Sasuke is pretty sure that he has never been this determined before. It has taken him a while, of course, but now he has finally made a decision. A decision that hurts way much more than he could ever be able to admit, but he keeps repeating to himself that maybe this is just the way things are meant to be for him, at least until he reaches his goal, which is still far away from his current situation.</p>
<p>But he also has learned that no matter how difficult things are, or how sad his life can be seen from everyone’s eyes, he has to keep going in order to do what he is convinced he is still alive for, even though Sasuke knows that doing that is not going to help him ease his pain. Nothing is going to ease his pain. However, he just chose to assume that this is the least he can do for his family.</p>
<p>Every step he takes, every attack he avoids, every physical pain he bears until the last second of every single battle, it is all for his family. He suffers for them, he cries for them and he misses them in a way that can hardly be compared to any sort of physical damage, because Sasuke has already received enough punches to understand that <em>everything</em> is <em>nothing</em> compared to the pain that has remained in his chest since he was a child.</p>
<p>It hurts. Every single breath Sasuke takes, makes his chest feel tight from the pain that he is honestly tired of not being able to get rid of.</p>
<p>And even though there might be some people around him that genuinely cares for him and wants to make him feel better somehow, he knows that he just cannot let some foreign, strange feelings get in his way.</p>
<p>Not now, that he has made –what probably will be– the most important decision of his life.</p>
<p>Not now, that Sasuke has finally decided to leave the village without looking back.  </p>
<p>Not now, because there is nothing that could make him change his mind at this point.</p>
<p>Or that is what he thinks, at least.  </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The following morning, Sasuke is abruptly awakened by the sound of someone knocking on his door in a <em>very</em> loud and insistent way. It is unusual, to say the least, since everyone knows that the young Uchiha is not one of those who receive visitors with open arms.</p><p>Actually, if he was not sure that there must be a very good reason for someone to show up at his house like this, he would not even open the door in the first place.  </p><p>Still dazed by his previous, unalarmed state, the boy struggles to get up without stumbling, and he cannot help but roll his eyes as he hears Naruto’s desperate callings as clear as if he was on the second floor of the house, right behind Sasuke’s bedroom door. He mumbles some curses referring to his stupid teammate as he does his way downstairs, rubbing his sleepy eyelids with the back of his hand in the process.</p><p>“What the hell are you-– “ Sasuke begins while finally opening the door, but he gets suddenly interrupted by the concerned –and strangely unsettling– yells of his friend.</p><p>“Sasuke, we need to get to the hospital right now!”</p><p>“What’s going on, Naruto?” he asks, still being unable to comprehend what would have happened for Naruto to look this worried.</p><p>He quickly resolves that whatever it is, it has to be pretty bad.</p><p>“It’s Sakura-chan! Hurry up and I’ll explain to you in the way!”</p><p>Sasuke’s heart skips a beat, or maybe two. One second later, an uncountable amount of questions start to formulate inside his head.</p><p>
  <em>What happened to Sakura? Is she alright? Did someone hurt her? And how did it happen? If she was perfectly fine just less than 24 hours ago…</em>
</p><p>The worst part is that Naruto was not able to answer one single question during their walk to the hospital, since Kakashi did not give him any further details when they spoke just a few minutes ago. Certainly, Sasuke took this as an opportunity to relax a bit, figuring that the real circumstances were completely unknown for them and his teammate was probably overreacting as he always uses to do. In fact, their sensei just asked Naruto to bring Sasuke with him so he could meet them both at the building’s entrance at the same time.</p><p>And that is exactly where they find him when they arrive.</p><p>Sasuke’s nerves start to rise again, and he can even feel the coldness of a shiver running through his spine as he approaches his sensei and takes just a few seconds to analyze him carefully, realizing that there is something <em>so</em> <em>wrong</em> with him. Kakashi Hatake, the man who arrives late everywhere and always remains impassive no matter what, is now standing in front of them with a stance that has a mix of concern and nervousness written all over his body, his brows are furrowed and his shoulders seem restrained with tension. Sasuke is pretty sure that the man would also be biting his nails if he were not wearing his mask, which is something that would never happen, by the way.</p><p>“Kakashi sensei!” Naruto calls him anxiously. “What’s wrong with Sakura-chan?”</p><p>“Naruto, Sasuke, I’m going to explain this once and I want you to do exactly what I say,” Kakashi says, slightly leaning forward as to get a closer look of his students. He raises a hand in front of Naruto to stop him when he reads his intentions of keeping with the questioning. “Sakura is awake now, so you can go and see her by yourselves, but let me warn you that you won’t like what you'll find in there. It may look like she is fine, but she is not. She is also very confused, which is why you aren’t allowed to ask her any questions. Is that clear?”</p><p>"But what happened to her?” Sasuke insists, feeling impatient with all the anticipation.</p><p>“Is. That. Clear?” their sensei repeats, his voice holding a stern and authoritative tone that neither Sasuke nor Naruto is used to hearing in normal conditions. He only seems to relax a bit when he hears both of his students answer his question positively. “Good. And about what happened… I’m afraid we still don’t know that for sure.”</p><p><em>Great</em>.</p><p>“Sensei, just take us to her already,” Naruto pleads.</p><p>The few seconds that take for the three of them to reach Sakura’s room become unnecessarily long.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The next chapter will be written from Sakura's POV so that the most important details of the accident can be revealed. It will also be longer than this one.<br/>Thanks for reading!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Tic. Toc. Tic. Toc. Tic. Toc.</em>
</p><p>Even though Sakura has no idea of days, or hours, or moments at all right now, she can be sure to say that she has been hearing that <em>damn</em> clock for a few minutes now. Maybe more than that.</p><p>
  <em>Tic. Toc. Tic. Toc.</em>
</p><p>It feels like it has been hours since she started to feel conscious again and, being honest, Sakura has seen better days before. Now that she is self-conscious of her entire body, she can feel it aching from head to toe, making even moving a finger a difficult task. She feels heavy, dizzy by the confusion that keeps wandering inside her mind. Everything is black because she is also struggling to lift her eyelids.</p><p>
  <em>Tic. Toc.</em>
</p><p>She tries her best to move her head, her fingers or arms or legs or any other part of her body that can respond to her weak intentions of waking up fully. When Sakura finally manages to slowly move her head to the side, a soft voice speaks.</p><p>“Sakura.”</p><p>
  <em>Tic.</em>
</p><p>“Sakura, are you awake?”</p><p>
  <em>Toc.</em>
</p><p>Seriously. She cannot stand that <em>fucking </em>clock anymore.</p><p>“Can you hear me?”</p><p>“Yes,” the kunoichi manages to respond, her voice weak and hoarse when it comes out for the first time in God knows how many hours.</p><p>Eventually, Sakura opens her eyes and carefully starts to move, resting part of her weight on her elbows so she can partially lift up her body from the mattress. The first thing she notices is that she is in the hospital, while the second is that there is a blonde woman sitting right next to her bed and Sakura has no idea of who she is.</p><p>Actually, Sakura is not able to recognize anything around her. And the feeling that dawns on her as a product of the realization is extremely uncomfortable.</p><p>The woman leans towards Sakura’s bed without standing from her chair and studies her features cautiously. The pink-haired girl does exactly the same, but no matter how hard she tries, she still is not able to recognize her. And she can be pretty sure the disorientation is written all over her face.</p><p>A few seconds later, the same voice breaks the silence again. “Do you know who I am?”</p><p>Sakura shakes her head and stares at some irrelevant spot ahead of her in the room. The tone of her voice leaves in evidence the confusion that grows inside her mind now that she is slowly coming back to reality. “I don’t know who <em>I</em> am,” she realizes, her eyes wide-open as she looks at the blonde beside her. “What happened to me?”</p><p>“It’s okay, it’s okay,” the woman tries to reassure her. “You may be experimenting some kind of post-traumatic amnesia. It happens sometimes.”</p><p>Sakura opens her mouth to put another question into words, but gets interrupted by the sound of somebody knocking on the door. The person who now she assumes is the medic gets quickly on her feet to open it, exiting the room for a brief moment to talk to someone that Sakura does not even bother to pay attention at, since she is actually busy struggling with the issue of visualizing an extremely blurred past.</p><p>She can hear them whispering some intelligible words while she makes an effort to sit up and organize her thoughts. The latest of these actions results impossible to carry out, by the way, but the term <em>post-traumatic</em> keeps echoing in her head.</p><p>
  <em>Something really bad happened to me.</em>
</p><p>“Sakura…” the medic begins as she returns to her seat, bringing Sakura back to reality. “That’s your name, okay? Sakura Haruno. Do you remember that?”</p><p>Her lower lip trembles when she answers, wishing she could authentically say <em>yes</em>. “I don’t.”</p><p>“Don’t worry, Sakura. I actually get to see these situations very often, you know? Let’s just… Let’s start from the beginning,” the blonde says and takes a deep breath, apparently trying to ease her own impending nervousness more than Sakura’s. It takes her a few seconds to choose the following words. “My name is Tsunade Senju and I am assisting you today because I am a medical ninja, but also because I am the Fifth Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village. Does that sound familiar to you?”</p><p>After a brief moment of deep thinking, the ghost of a smile appears on Sakura’s lips as she responds. “I think so, I... I remember something about that.”</p><p>“That’s good,” Tsunade sighs in relief. To her, this means that not everything is lost. To Sakura, on the other side, it only contributes to increasing her list of inquiries.</p><p>“Am I a ninja?”</p><p>“You are a thirteen-year-old genin, indeed.”</p><p>“A genin, I get it,” Sakura nods thoughtfully as she realizes she knows the meaning of that word too. She gulps. “So what? I had an incident during my training, then? Something went wrong on a mission?” she tries to guess, starting to feel anxious from the lack of information.</p><p>“All that we know for now is that everything was perfectly normal yesterday, but this morning, however, you showed up at the village’s gates from the outside and asked the guards for help. The one who brought you to me said that you fainted in front of them, probably from exhaustion.”</p><p>“Oh…” is everything Sakura can say in return, her sight getting lost on some point of the room again. She is too busy trying to figure the possibility of remembering the events that occurred earlier that morning, but to no avail. Everything seems black, empty, as if most of the scenes in her life were snatched from her memory somehow.</p><p>“I’m really sorry, Sakura” Tsunade softly apologizes, reaching for Sakura’s hand to show her some support and giving it a squeeze. “We were expecting that you could tell us what happened, but this complicates the situation a bit.”</p><p>Sakura has to make an effort to swallow the lump in her throat, feeling frightened by a thought that makes her considerate that the Hokage might be saving some details for herself. “Why do I feel like there is something you aren’t telling me, Tsunade-sama?” she asks, patiently and desperately at the same time.</p><p>“You’re a smart girl, huh?” The Hokage lets out a small, bitter laugh as she gets on her feet, standing closer to Sakura’s bed. “I will tell you the rest. But first, I need to make another quick examination now that you’re awake, just to make sure everything within your body is fine.”</p><p>Next thing the pink-haired girl can see is that the Hokage’s hands are covered with a layer of light green, glowing chakra. Before she can say something to express her curiosity, the woman places a palm to Sakura’s chest, right where the heart is supposed to be located, while the other is placed on her back. The chakra feels soft and cold as it spreads through her limbs, causing Sakura to shiver at the foreign, yet relaxing sensation.</p><p>Sakura might not be the medic here, but it does not take a genius to realize that the Hokage is trying to calm her down by transferring a stream of soothing, healing chakra to her body, and she is honestly thankful for the gesture, because she knows the nightmare has just begun and she could <em>really</em> use some help from now on.</p><p>“My head aches,” Sakura communicates after a minute of silence, staring up at Tsunade to read her expressions. There is a frown plastered on her face and her eyes are closed, probably as a result of her concentration state.</p><p>“I know,” she whispers before withdrawing her hands, apparently finishing the examination and staring down at Sakura. “Don’t worry, it’ll fade away eventually.”</p><p>Before Sakura can do something else apart from nodding in response, the door of the room swings open with more force than necessary and a <em>very</em> concerned boy makes his way inside. She can only get a glimpse of his blonde hair and his jazzy, difficult-not-to-notice orange attire when he runs towards her as if his life depended on it.</p><p>“Sakura-chan!” the boy calls her in a desperately, completely unnecessary loud tone, apparently forgetting the fact that nobody in the room is <em>deaf</em>. He pushes his body against Sakura’s, wrapping his arms around her shoulders in a breathtaking hug that takes the kunoichi by surprise.</p><p>Surprisingly, the fact that she is struggling to catch some air is not the main of her problems right now, because Sakura is actually trying to understand how is even possible that a person whose face and name and everything is completely unknown to her, is still able to make her feel what she is feeling right now. Is it love? Happiness? Hope? Sakura cannot say, but she can actually say that the sensation is familiar and relieving at the same time.</p><p>When she manages to separate from the boy and try to reassure him by explaining she is alright –even though he has not even given a chance for her to point out that she does <em>not</em> recognize him anymore– she realizes there are two more people in the room now: one of them is a silver-haired man that is currently scolding Naruto for being so <em>impulsive and disobedient</em> and asking him to give Sakura some space<em>. </em>The second one is another boy, quite the opposite of his blonde fellow in every possible way: dark hair, even darker eyes and very inconspicuous clothes. He is staring at her with a serious, unreadable expression that Sakura chooses to believe is just a way to show his preoccupation.</p><p>
  <em>If they are here it must be because they care about me, right?</em>
</p><p>“Sakura,” Tsunade draws her attention from her seat, crossing her arms in front of her chest. She looks impassive, probably used to dealing with this kind of situations –or with this kids specifically–. “Let me introduce you to your <em>very special</em> teammates: the one who you might have realized just can’t stop talking is Naruto, while this other guy whose voice is pretty unusual to hear is Sasuke. They’re… particular, but you’ll get used to them just like you did before,” she quickly explains, waving one of her hands as if resting importance to the matter. Then, she glances to the man standing beside her and turns her head back to Sakura. ”This one over here is Kakashi and he is your sensei, by the way. He is… Well, just more of the same, I guess.”</p><p>Before Kakashi can formulate a single word to protest, Sasuke speaks for the first time since he entered the room. “Wait, what are you talking about?” he asks, and even though his expression remains intact, the confusion in his voice is very clear.</p><p>The Hokage stares at the Uchiha for a couple of seconds with a questioning glare. She blinks once, twice, until the third time she can finally put all the pieces together: their sensei is an <em>idiot</em>.</p><p>Biting the inside of her cheek and rubbing the bridge of her nose in an attempt to hold on her temperament, Tsunade does not even try to hide the exasperation in her tone when she asks, “Kakashi, didn’t I <em>specifically</em> ask you to explain the kids that Sakura has amnesia before they came to see her?”</p><p>“In fact, you asked me to tell the kids that Sakura was <em>confused</em>,” Kakashi points out.</p><p>The following series of events develop almost simultaneously: Tsunade stands up cursing under her breath to face Kakashi with clear intentions of kicking him out of the room. Next thing Sakura knows she has Naruto practically yelling at her face and flooding her ears with questions whose answers are unknown to her, and before she can get a chance to politely ask him to stop talking and call for Tsunade –who is currently in the middle of an <em>aggressive</em> discussion– Sasuke, who has not even moved an inch from his position, interferes again.</p><p>“Why aren’t her parents here already?” he asks perplexed, his voice coming out a bit louder so that it can be heard among the bustle rumbling in the room.</p><p>Less than a second later, however, the atmosphere is filled with <em>silence</em>.</p><p>
  <em>Tic. Toc. Tic. Toc. Tic. Toc.</em>
</p><p>Tsunade freezes for a moment. She releases Kakashi from her grip on his vest, pushing him away with more force than necessary and automatically turns towards Sakura, who is already staring at her with an expectant look on her face.</p><p>
  <em>This is not going to be nice.</em>
</p><p>“When Sakura left the village earlier this morning, she did it with her parents,” the Hokage begins to explain, clearly and slowly, being as careful with her words as she can. “But when she came back a few hours ago, she was on her own.”</p><p>
  <em>Tic. Toc. Tic. Toc. Tic. Toc.</em>
</p><p>Sakura’s vision becomes blurred as she feels her eyes being filled with tears.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hey everyone!<br/>So, I think there are several things I could point out, but I'm just going to say that, as you can see, Sakura will have to suffer a bit, and she will change.<br/>Anyway, if you have any thoughts on the story, I'd be happy to read them!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hey everyone!<br/>So, before you start reading the chapter I'd like to clarify some things about the story. First of all, Sakura's incident is situated the night where Sasuke leaves the village in the anime, which doesn't happen here. The ninjas from the Sound arrive two days after Sasuke and Naruto's fight in the hospital, so everything remains the same until that day.<br/>Lastly, I'm going to make a quick disclaimer here:<br/>(In case that it wasn't obvious) I do NOT own Naruto or any of the characters mentioned in this story. Thank you very much.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Sasuke makes his way to the training ground in the morning, he is not surprised to be the first to arrive, since it is still pretty early and neither Naruto nor his sensei is known for being exceptionally punctual, so he absentmindedly chooses a random place on the grass to sit down and lean his back against a tree trunk while he waits for the rest of his team to show up.</p><p>Half an hour later, however, when Naruto arrives and there are not any signs of Sakura yet, he remembers that things are not going very well.</p><p>“Hey, Sasuke!” Naruto waves at him, cheerful as usual, but he does not even shoot a glance at the blonde. “Isn’t Sakura-chan coming today either?”</p><p>Before Sasuke can even have the chance to shrug in response –because he was not planning to utter a word–, he visualizes two people approaching them in the distance.</p><p>“Sakura-chan!” Naruto rushes to greet the pink-haired girl when she and Kakashi are just a few feet away from the pair. He hugs her so tightly that Sakura’s past self would have hit him for being so careless. However, she just lets out a giggle at the intensity of her teammate and wraps an arm around his shoulders to hug him back before their sensei asks them to join him and Sasuke near the trees.</p><p>“I’m afraid the Hokage hasn’t given Sakura the permission to train with us today,” Kakashi informs once that the three of them are sitting on the grass, listening intently. “Yet she is here to keep us company.”</p><p>Sasuke frowns, glancing at Sakura to make sure that there is not something <em>visibly</em> wrong with her. She looks tired, probably from the lack of sleep. There are a few scratches and some slight, dark purple bruises on the outside of her arms and the exposed skin of her legs. If she got involved in a fight during the incident, it was a pretty silly one. The girl looks perfectly fine in comparison to other situations in the past.</p><p>“Are you okay?” he asks.</p><p>“Yes. It’s just that Tsunade-sama hasn’t made sure that my battle skills weren’t affected yet, and she doesn’t want me to take any risks,” Sakura explains. And probably no one there, including Naruto, misses the fact that she is actually forcing a reassuring smile.</p><p>“Hn,” is everything Sasuke says in return.</p><p>He has not had an appropriate chance to analyze Sakura’s situation with detail, but judging by what he witnessed in the hospital two days earlier, he can be sure to affirm that things do not look good for her. Starting with the fact that the whole series of events is extremely suspicious. Not to mention that things in the village were just complicated enough right before this happened to her. The last thing Sakura needed was to lose everything from one day to another, including her <em>damn</em> memories and the key to solve the mystery of her parent’s disappearance.</p><p>“Okay then,” Naruto breaks the silence with a sheepish laugh, getting on his feet to run towards the centre of the training ground. “Come at me, Sasuke!” he shouts. His eyes and grin shining with enthusiasm as he takes a fighting stance.</p><p>Sakura stands up at the same time that Sasuke does. “Good luck,” she says when he walks past her, as innocently as her senses allow her to do it.</p><p>Sasuke glances at her over his shoulder.</p><p>“I don’t need it.” He shrugs, resuming his steps towards an anxious and impatient Naruto.</p><p>Sakura’s jaw drops to the floor, and Kakashi cannot help the amused smile that forms on his lips as he can practically see his student’s body fill with outrage.</p><p>“Did I ever have a chance to take his ego down in the past, sensei?” Sakura inquires.</p><p>“I wouldn’t waste my time if I were you, Sakura,” Kakashi suggests, shaking his head in resignation. “It’s useless.”</p><p>Sakura gives him a mischievous grin in return. “We’ll see.”</p><p>***</p><p>Once Kakashi calls the training to an end, he tells Naruto to walk Sakura home. He would have asked Sasuke to do it instead, considering that the girl might not be in the mood to listen to her exuberant teammate’s constant chatter, but there are a few things he needs to discuss.</p><p>“Sasuke,” the man calls his student before he can leave. Reluctantly, Sasuke turns to face him. “You could try and be nicer to Sakura, you know? Your support is all she needs right now.”</p><p>“Well, she got used to me being just like this once, so she can do it again, right?”</p><p>“Come on, I know you’re worried about her.”</p><p>Sasuke averts his gaze to the floor. Kakashi sighs and takes one of his hands out of his pocket to scratch his temple distractedly. It is not that the boy makes his patience grow thin or something, but he is just too struggled and difficult to tame and Kakashi is done with the lectures for now.</p><p>“You can do whatever you want, Sasuke,” he says after a few seconds of silence, understanding that Sasuke will not add anything else to the conversation. “But let me remember you, without going any further, that just a few days ago when you were still in a hospital bed, <em>she</em> was the one taking care of you.”</p><p>“Yes, but I didn’t ask her to do that.” Sasuke shrugs.</p><p>Kakashi sighs again. Even reasoning with a wall would have been much easier than with his student.</p><p>“Just… do me a favour and keep an eye on her, okay?”</p><p>And before Sasuke can say something in return, his sensei disappears leaving a cloud of smoke.</p><p><em>The worst part is that he is right, </em>the Uchiha muses, quickly resolving that there are a few things he seriously has to think about.</p><p>Sasuke gets back to the place where he landed after his fight with Naruto, just hours before Sakura’s incident. He takes a seat on the enormous tree branch and under the shadows of its leaves, staring at nothing in particular. The memories of Kakashi’s lecture come to his mind and he tries to link them with the words he has heard from his sensei just minutes ago.</p><p>Is he really doing something wrong? Yes, maybe he is, but no one can blame him for that. Sakura is in pain right now, he gets it, but Sasuke is pretty sure that there are many people who care about her. And even though he is actually grateful for everything his teammate has done and risked for him, he is not sure of how to return that. Those are just minor issues for him, nothing that he should allow for it to occupy a lot of space inside his mind.   </p><p>Sasuke is abruptly pulled out of his thoughts when four figures appear out of nowhere, standing right in front of him. He gets on his feet, automatically adopting a fighting stance when he realizes he does not recognize them.</p><p>
  <em>What the hell is going on here?</em>
</p><p>“Who are you?” he asks without showing a hint of sympathy.</p><p>“We’re the Sound Ninja Four, I’m Kidomaru of the East Gate.”</p><p>“And I’m Sakon of the West Gate.”</p><p>“I’m Jirobo of the South Gate.”</p><p>“And I’m Tayuya of the North Gate.”</p><p>The four ninjas split up in less than a second. Sasuke looks up and down, from right to left, anxiously trying not to miss any of their moves. He does not even have the time to wonder who these guys are or why on Earth are they attacking him, since he is too busy managing to dodge every punch, each one of them coming from different directions, and without falling off the tree in the middle of the fight.</p><p>When Sasuke realizes that he was fighting against some clones product of a Substitution Jutsu, he shoots a glance over his shoulder to spot all his rivals standing behind him in the distance.</p><p>
  <em>I’m not in the mood for this right now.</em>
</p><p>***</p><p>At this point in his life, Sasuke would never considerate himself an impatient person. He has always known that he would have to wait for years in order to achieve the main objective of his life.</p><p>Putting it in different words, Sasuke has always known that being capable to kill his brother would require years of training.</p><p>He has also always believed that everything is meant to occur in a specific moment, at a specific place, for a specific reason. Regardless of whether it is a true or false statement, it certainly is the reason he has been telling himself he is still alive for.</p><p>This time, however, he is starting to think that maybe life, God, the stars o whatever it is in command of everything and everyone down here on Earth, has made an awful mistake.</p><p>Why did something like this have to happen right now?</p><p>It could have happened after or before, but no. It just happens now. Now that Sasuke does not have time to waste, and that he knows he has to leave as soon as possible, because the world keeps spinning and his life is going on.</p><p>Because there are some days where he feels like he is running out of time and today, precisely, is one of those days.</p><p>Because this is exactly the reason why Sasuke has always tried to avoid making friends and getting attached to other people. He is human, after all, and humans have feelings. Humans grow fond of people and Sasuke is not the exception to the rule, even though he would really like to be.</p><p>It is not like Sasuke cared too much about morality. Actually, he could not care less about moral issues sometimes and, for the record, the fact of leaving the village itself is morally incorrect, so…</p><p>No, this definitely is not about deciding between what he should do and what he actually wants to do. This is about Sakura. It is about his teammate, his friend, the person who has been there for him no matter what and always tried her best to protect him at all costs.</p><p>Is this the way he is going to pay her for everything she has done? Is he actually willing to leave his friend, now that she is going through what probably is the worst moment of her life?</p><p>Is he actually going to listen to the voices inside his head that keep repeating the things those ninjas from the Sound told him just moments ago?</p><p>
  <em>‘If you stay in a seedy place like this, you’ll just remain mediocre at best.’</em>
</p><p>
  <em>‘If you just keep playing ninja with all of your friends here…’</em>
</p><p>
  <em>‘Lord Orochimaru offers you power.’</em>
</p><p>
  <em>‘… You have to decide.’</em>
</p><p>…</p><p>Sasuke can feel the curse mark pounding in his neck as the images of himself being beaten up by those freaks appear in his mind. It is disgusting and demeaning and it hurts his pride above it all. He is a prodigy, born to be a leader, just like every Uchiha was meant to be. But he is the one who remains alive now –much to his regret–, and he must honour not only his family, but the entire Uchiha clan by taking justice into his own hands.</p><p>If there is something Kakashi was right about, it is that Sasuke is not one of the lucky ones. He has been teamed up with two wonderful people, yes, that is for sure. But maybe that is still not reason enough for him to stay.</p><p>Because Naruto is completely capable of taking care of himself and becoming the powerful ninja he is so committed to being, and Sakura…</p><p>Well, Sakura is really strong on her own way, and she is surrounded by people –Naruto, Ino, Kakashi, Tsunade, Lee, and the list goes on–  who is willing to help her get through this situation. If she ever finds out the truth about her incident, they will be there for her. If she ever needs a shoulder to cry on, they will be there to hold her.</p><p>If she ever misses him, they will help her move on.</p><p>Looking the issue from another angle, Sasuke could even consider this as the perfect opportunity to leave the village, since everyone is busy dealing with a prominent danger beyond Konoha’s boundaries and, most of all, since Sakura can hardly recognize him at this point of her life.</p><p>
  <em>She won’t suffer in the way she would have if she hadn’t lost her memory.</em>
</p><p>She has also a much bigger problem to think of now.</p><p><em>Maybe it’s now or never</em>, he concludes.</p><p>***</p><p>The night is uncomfortably quiet today, clear and illuminated by the reflection of the moon and the wind is cold when it grazes Sasuke’s skin as he makes his way home. It is nice and refreshing.</p><p>However, it does not make him feel any better.</p><p>He closes the door behind him as he leans his back against the wood for a brief moment, taking what he has already decided it is the last look at the Uchiha’s compound, at the place he has called his home since he was a child, at the empty house that once was occupied by a family that no longer exists.</p><p>After that, Sasuke gets directly inside his room, not even bothering about eating since he actually feels like he is going to throw up. He starts collecting the essential things he has to take with him, putting them inside his bag without paying much attention to the task. He takes a last look at his room and, specifically, at the framed Team Seven’s photography on the table located against the window, slowly putting it down a few seconds later.</p><p><em>It hurts more than it should, but I’ll be okay</em>, Sasuke resolves while he takes the street that leads to Konoha’s gates, trying his best not to get distracted by random thoughts or memories that could make him change his mind in the last minute.</p><p>
  <em>It will be okay.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>They’re expecting me. I can’t step back.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>This is what I have to do.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Maybe someday, I’ll be back.</em>
</p><p>There is a second where Sasuke stops on his tracks when, in the distance, no more than fifty feet away, he visualizes a familiar figure walking towards the same direction as him. Unmistakable pink, short hair and the Haruno symbol on the back of her red top is everything he needs to see in order to identify his teammate in a split second.</p><p>He sighs in surrender as he starts walking again. <em>Unbelievable</em>.</p><p>Is there a possibility for Sakura to know about his intentions of leaving? No. Impossible. Maybe she would have been able to deduce it in the past and go after him, but right now the chances are non-existent. It has been just two days since the incident, and she was discharged from hospital that morning.</p><p>It must be a <em>very</em> inconvenient coincidence and nothing more.</p><p>“Sakura,” Sasuke calls her when he is just a few meters away, noticing that she did not have any intention of stopping despite having realized she was not alone anymore. Sakura freezes then, confusion spreading all over her face as she turns to see him. “It’s the middle of the night. What are you hanging around for?”</p><p>Sakura’s gaze darkens in a way that Sasuke has never seen before, and even though he remains impassive in the outside, something painfully uncomfortable starts to pound inside his chest.</p><p>“I couldn’t sleep, so I decided that maybe going back on my tracks would help me remember something,” she says and lets out a bitter laugh, staring at the floor while she rubs the back of her neck sheepishly. “Still got nothing.”</p><p>Sasuke gulps. He definitely does not even want to imagine what might be going on inside his teammate’s head right now.</p><p>Honestly, he has more than enough with his own mental issues, thank you very much.</p><p>“Just… go home, Sakura,” he says, walking past Sakura without even shooting a glance at her.</p><p>Soon Sakura resumes her steps and starts walking by Sasuke’s side. He raises a brow and looks at her, quickly scanning her features to see if he can find something out of place.</p><p>Nothing.  </p><p>Her eyes are focused on the way ahead and her expressions are calm, cold, and almost emotionally-devoid. There is not even a small smile or a sad look. She seems so lost in her thoughts that Sasuke doubts she cares about his presence at all.</p><p>Maybe the fact that Sakura is not making the scandal she would have if everything were normal is a good thing for him, but damn that it feels <em>weird</em>.</p><p>“You’re leaving,” Sakura quietly remarks.</p><p>Sasuke remains silent, unsure of how to respond.</p><p>“Are you going to leave me, too?” Sakura speaks again, a bit louder this time.</p><p>
  <em>Maybe I was drawing conclusions too soon.</em>
</p><p>“This isn’t about you, Sakura.”</p><p>“Why do you have to do this now?”</p><p>Sasuke cannot dare to face her right now, but he can say by the sound of her voice that she feels quite <em>offended, </em>almost betrayed.</p><p>“You don’t need me anymore.”</p><p>Sakura freezes. Sasuke keeps walking. Several steps later, he can hear her let out a sarcastic laugh.</p><p>“You know that my feelings are still here, right?”</p><p>Sasuke stops.</p><p>
  <em>What?</em>
</p><p>“It’s ridiculous,” Sakura’s voice breaks. “Feeling like I love you when there isn’t a single memory of you in my mind…”</p><p>He swallows hard. His heart is beating harder against his chest. He cannot stand something like a love confession just now.</p><p>And above it all, judging from what he is about to do, he does not even deserve it.</p><p>“It hurts, you know?” Sakura continues. She is sobbing, and Sasuke feels like he is the worst person in the world. “Because there’s something inside me… telling me that no matter what I do, I won’t be able to stop you.”</p><p>“And you’re right,” Sasuke confirms as he begins to walk.</p><p>Sakura follows him from behind.</p><p>“Why are you leaving, Sasuke?”</p><p>“Because I have to,” he says, cold as ice.</p><p>Even though she says nothing in return, she keeps following his steps. The only sounds Sasuke can hear come from the sole of their shoes against the stone floor, and also from Sakura’s quiet sobs.</p><p>He has the weirdest feeling about this situation. Why did she stop talking? Is she seriously going to give up just like that? Is she waiting until the moment they reach the gates to ask the guards for help?</p><p>If that was the case, then he cannot let it happen. Sasuke has already thought of a way to distract those men, but it would never work with Sakura there.</p><p>
  <em>The sooner I get to knock her out, the better.</em>
</p><p>“Sasuke.” Sakura pauses on her tracks again.</p><p>When Sasuke finally turns around, he realizes she is much closer now, just a few feet away. He looks at her in the eyes, but regrets immediately. He cannot quite say if she is sad, disappointed, tired, or everything at the same time. She seems so broken that it hurts, her eyes are shining and her cheeks are wet from the tears that have not stopped falling.</p><p>If it were someone else, Sasuke would have considered this an overreaction, but coming from Sakura, he actually would not expect less. She has always been this way. So intense, so expressive, absolutely overwhelming. Everything he would never be.</p><p>The second he makes the mistake of lowering his guard, Sakura closes the distance between them, wrapping her arms around his shoulders in the blink of an eye. Startled by the gesture, Sasuke takes a step back, but she takes one forward, not willing to let him go.</p><p>He keeps his hands inside his pockets, stiff as a rock. Physical contact has always bothered him because he never knows how to react, and because he is not used to receiving it. It feels warm, however, and, for some reason Sasuke does not want to think about, it is not that uncomfortable when it comes from her.</p><p>Sasuke can feel Sakura’s heart pounding against his chest, and he wonders if maybe she is afraid of losing him, of not being able to hold him like this again.</p><p>He would be lying if he said that it does not touch a sensitive fibre inside him.</p><p>“I-I have to go,” Sasuke whispers against loose strands of pink hair. He curses inwardly for the way his voice trembles when he speaks.</p><p>Sakura pulls back just a few inches so she can face him properly. She is not crying anymore, yet she is shaking like a leaf. Slowly, her hands move from Sasuke’s back to his shoulders, and from his shoulders to his cheeks. Her touch is soft, sweet, and really confusing.</p><p>He has no idea why he is letting her do that.</p><p>Sakura bites her lower lip, and Sasuke’s breath hitches as he focuses on it. They are too close. He should not have let her come this far.</p><p>
  <em>Wait, is she going to…?</em>
</p><p>Before Sasuke can understand what is happening, Sakura’s hands tense against his skin. She draws her head back just a bit, and then she hits Sasuke’s forehead with her own. The pain that instantly spreads is sharp, almost deafening.</p><p>Sasuke loses his balance due to the impact and, without giving him a chance to react, Sakura grabs him by the collar of his shirt and hits him again, using her fist to aim a punch at his temple this time.</p><p>Next thing Sasuke knows, he hears a loud thud and everything goes <em>black</em>.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So... Now I'd like to thank all of you for reading and leaving a comment on my story! It really makes me feel inspired to keep writing, and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I do imagining and writing it.<br/>As I said before, your thoughts on this chapter are more than welcome, and if there's something that isn't very clear, I'll happy to answer!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>(In case that it wasn't obvious) I do NOT own Naruto or any of the characters mentioned in this story. Thank you very much.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> “Tsunade-sama!”</p><p>The Hokage jumps in her seat as the silence of the night is suddenly broken by someone’s desperate voice calling her. Both she and Shizune were literally falling asleep over her desk before Sakura kicked the door open, causing a strenuous noise that was probably heard from the other side of the hall.</p><p>She looks worried, distressed, exhausted… and least, but not less important, she is also carrying an unconscious Sasuke on her back.</p><p>Tsunade frowns as she notices this, but only gets on her feet when Sakura falls on her knees to let Sasuke slip from her back and land on the floor without much care, which causes the boy to hit several parts of his body against the hard surface, including his head. She grabs him by his arms then, dragging him to the centre of the office just as if he was a dead body she has to get rid of.</p><p>In other circumstances, it would surely have been a fun scene to watch.</p><p>“Sakura, what happened to him?” Tsunade asks, quickly kneeling by Sasuke’s side and starting to scan his body, looking for some signs of damage.</p><p>Even though she cannot see very well through the darkness of the room, it takes her just a second to identify a small, dark bruise on his forehead. Tsunade glances at the little girl in front of her questioningly, waiting for an answer that does not take much to come out.</p><p>“I ran into him on the road near to Konoha’s gates,” Sakura explains, leaving no place for details. “I’m pretty sure he was trying to leave the village.”</p><p>There are a few seconds of silence where the Hokage turns to share a serious look with Shizune, who has not moved from her seat yet. Although it only lasts a brief moment, it is more than enough for Sakura to understand that the lack of words speaks for itself.</p><p>
  <em>Do they know what’s going on here?</em>
</p><p>“Sakura, I need you to tell me exactly what happened,” Tsunade says, facing Sakura again. “But do it quickly, because I don’t want this kid to wake up here.”</p><p>“Why not?” Sakura asks and frowns. “Aren’t you going to give him a lecture for being such an idiot, Tsunade-sama?” she continues, nodding towards Sasuke’s direction to clear her point.</p><p>“I would do it if I could, but it’s certainly way much easier to keep an eye on someone who doesn’t know is being watched,” the woman says and stands up, motioning for Sakura to follow her as she makes her way back to her desk. “Shizune, I want you to take a look at Sasuke and make sure he doesn’t regain consciousness.”</p><p>“And what do I do if he wakes up?” Shizune asks, already walking towards Sasuke and leaving a free chair for Sakura to sit on as she does so.</p><p>“Then you hit him again!” Tsunade exclaims as if it were the most obvious thing in the world before letting out a dramatic sigh. She rests both elbows on the desk, slowly rubbing her closed eyes in an attempt to gain some patience. Meanwhile, Sakura is silently waiting for the Hokage to start with the questioning, nervously playing with her fingers on her lap. “Alright, Sakura, I need you to tell me everything from the beginning. What were you doing out there when you saw Sasuke, what did he tell you and what did you do to stop him?”</p><p>Now it is Sakura’s turn to sigh. Just the thought of having to tell Tsunade the whole thing makes her stomach churn. Starting with the fact that she knows she should not have left her home for a night walk and she is going to be scolded for that. Besides, the rest of the events involving Sasuke are a very interesting story to tell, to say the least.</p><p>Firstly, because she managed to knock out an Uchiha on her own, which is something that most people would doubt without a second thought. Secondly, because of the way she actually did it.</p><p>Sakura seriously would rather not to talk about it. Not today, not tomorrow, and preferably, never in her entire life.</p><p>***</p><p>The first thing Sasuke can visualize when he opens his eyes, is the white lining of the back of a couch he does not remember have fallen asleep on. Before he can recall something about the previous night and organize his fuzzy thoughts, a throbbing pain emanating from someplace in his head makes everything clearer for him.</p><p>Sasuke’s heart starts beating hard against his chest as the realization of what is just happening dawns on him. He should not be here. He was supposed to leave the village last night. It was his decision, the path he had decided to take in order to achieve the only goal he continues to live for.</p><p>At this point in his life, Sasuke never imagined that someone would actually stop him from doing whatever he wanted, and this was probably the worst situation for someone to start with.</p><p>
  <em>Damn it.</em>
</p><p>“Good morning,” a sweet voice greets him.</p><p>Sasuke turns his head to find Sakura kneeled next to the couch, watching him closely with an impassive, innocent look on her face. He gets on his feet immediately, straightening his torso so abruptly that Sakura’s head would have collided with his if she did not react just in time, standing up too and leaving a safe distance between them.</p><p>“You,” Sasuke spits out, breathing heavily from the anger that grows inside his body as the images of their previous encounter pass like flashes through his mind. “What the <em>hell</em> did you do?”</p><p>Sakura knows this is not precisely a question Sasuke needs her to answer, and the only reason why she decides to do it anyway is that there is a very stupid, yet tempting urge inside her pushing her to taunt him instead of trying to calm him down.</p><p>Finding herself inexplicably amused by the situation, Sakura has to make a great effort to hold back a smirk as she speaks, “I can explain, I swear.”</p><p>“You fooled me,” Sasuke says, taking a few slow, threatening steps towards his teammate.</p><p>Even though Sakura’s playful attitude does not falter, she actually feels like Sasuke could attack her any second. She instinctively crosses her arms as a –pretty useless– way of protection.</p><p>“Well, I still can’t believe you fell for it, actually,” she snorts. “You should know better.”</p><p>Sakura starts to step back when she realizes that her teammate has no intentions of stopping, and judging by the sombre expression he is looking at her with and the way his hands are balled into fists, she can be pretty sure that things may not be going well.</p><p>Ironically, it is actually the fact that Sakura is not afraid of Sasuke that makes her be aware of the consequences of not handling this situation correctly. She should not be taunting him the way she is doing it. Tsunade told her what to do, she told her everything she needed to know to get through this moment on her own. She knows that he is seriously mad at her right now and that trying to reason with someone blinded by anger is nothing but a waste of time.</p><p>Sakura knew beforehand that Sasuke was going to wake up in a <em>very</em> bad mood, and that it was only going to be because of her. She also knows that there is no way she could stand a chance against him if things end up getting a bit violent. Not to mention that morbid curse mark on his neck that the Hokage <em>especially</em> warned her about.</p><p>
  <em>‘If you make him really angry, the curse mark might take control over his body. If that happens, you better run.’</em>
</p><p>Sakura feels a shiver run through her spine as her back touches the cold glass of the sliding door behind her. She knows that she is probably in trouble now, but she is not going to run, nor is she going to hide, especially because deep down, there is a hopeful feeling telling her that Sasuke will not dare to hurt her, no matter what.</p><p>They were supposed to be friends after all, right?</p><p>Taking her out of her thoughts, Sasuke grabs Sakura by the front of her crop top, pulling her closer in a rough motion that totally takes her by surprise. She wraps her fingers around Sasuke’s wrists forcefully, cursing under her breath as she reminds herself that she needs to be smarter and resist the urge to fight back.</p><p>“You ruined <em>everything</em>,” Sasuke growls, his heavy breaths tickling Sakura’s skin as he speaks.</p><p>“You’re wrong.” Sakura gulps. “I-I saved you,” she stutters.</p><p>Sasuke’s hold tightens while he struggles to decide whether it is productive to start yelling at his annoying teammate for always managing to get in his way or not. Not only is he mad at her because she kept him from leaving, but also for the way she <em>persuaded</em> him to do it.</p><p>He would have never expected something like that from her.</p><p>The Sakura he knows would have never played with him like that, she would have never cried just for an act and, above it all, she would have never said that she loved him if she actually did not do it.</p><p>She lied to him, deceived him, and now, instead of apologizing or, at least, taking the situation seriously, Sakura is doing nothing but making fun of him.</p><p>It is hard for Sasuke to believe that she woke up one day having left a whole past behind without even realizing it.</p><p>He looks at her in the eyes for a very brief moment. Just a couple of seconds are more than enough for Sasuke to understand that Sakura is not the same person anymore, and she will probably never be. She might be smirking, but she is not happy at all. She is not the same girl that would have been contented just by being around him. No matter how much Sasuke ignored her or asked her to stop talking because he was not interested in hearing a single word of what she was saying, Sakura would always have settled for the bare minimum when it comes to him.</p><p>Right now, however, it is very clear to Sasuke that the games are over. The innocent girl he once met disappeared the moment her memories vanished, also did the love she used to unconditionally feel for him. The tears he saw running down Sakura’s face last night were fake. The sadness she showed had nothing to do with him, and none of the words she said was true.</p><p>Although Sasuke has no idea of what Sakura meant by saying that she saved him just because she stopped him from leaving the village, it is definitely not something he wants to know right now. Besides, he will probably not be able to believe her, no matter what she says.</p><p>He did not need to be saved from anything. No one had the right to decide for him.</p><p>
  <em>How could she dare to do this to me?</em>
</p><p>Sasuke finally lets her go, pushing her away harder than necessary, which causes Sakura to lose her balance and slam her back against the door, wincing in pain as she hits her head as well. The glass surface cracks due to the impact but does not break.</p><p>“Stay away from me,” Sasuke warns her before grabbing his bag from the couch and turning to leave Sakura’s home, more pissed than ever, making sure he slams the door shut in the process.</p><p>“Thanks for letting me explain!” Sakura shouts in a sarcastic tone, even though she knows Sasuke is not anywhere near to hear her.</p><p>And even if he did, he could not care less at this point.</p><p>She rolls her eyes in frustration as she tries to decide whether it was a good or bad thing that Sasuke decided to leave without making the scandal Tsunade warned her about, which is probably more positive than what she can imagine right now. However, the fact that Sakura has to go and report all the events to the Hokage again does not make any fun to her.</p><p>It is so early in the morning to start dealing with problems like this.</p><p>***</p><p>“He hates me.”</p><p>Those are the first three words Sakura decides are most suitable to answer the <em>‘How did it go?’</em> Tsunade receives her in her office. After taking a seat across the desk, Sakura lets out a tired sigh before continuing, “I think he literally hates me for what I did, Tsunade-sama.”</p><p>“I’m pretty sure that Sasuke is just mad at you, Sakura, and emotions such as anger never last forever,” Tsunade reassures her, although she is apparently more concentrated on the task of looking for a specific paper among all the piles of unread documents that occupy most of the space on her desk. She finally finds a blank file and starts filling the spaces available on the top of the page with black ink. “Now, Sakura, since I’m sure you have already understood how important this is, I’ll ask you to be more specific about what happened, okay?”</p><p>“Okay.” Sakura nods quietly, unsure of how to start. “Well, nothing really happened right after I carried Sasuke home, since he didn’t wake up until… until an hour ago or so. And when he woke up, he just figured that I had deceived him and ruined his plans and apparently his entire life, so there was a moment where I seriously thought he was going to <em>end</em> me…” She makes a brief pause to take some air, staring down at the words Tsunade keeps writing while she speaks. “Oh, he also slammed me against a door before warning me to stay away from him or something like that, and then just left.”</p><p>“Anything else?” Tsunade asks, still focused on her writing.</p><p>“Nope. That’s it.”</p><p>“All right.” The Hokage makes the file aside and crosses her arms, resting them on the wooden surface. “So, are you hurt?”</p><p>Sakura takes a few seconds to think, finding that question a bit difficult to respond to.</p><p>“I’m fine, I guess.” She shrugs.</p><p>“Sakura, I know you are going through a rough moment of your life. I haven’t forgotten that.”</p><p>“Thanks,” Sakura whispers.</p><p>“What I want to say is, if you don’t want to get involved in this–-“</p><p>“I said I am fine,” she interrupts, trying her best to put a determined look on her face. “Just tell me what I have to do now.”</p><p>Tsunade squints, staring at the little kunoichi carefully, as if by doing that she would be able to discern what might be going inside her messy, terribly confused mind.</p><p>“Not too much, actually,” she begins, leaning back in her seat. “I informed Kakashi about the details of the situation earlier today, so he will be the one to keep an eye on Sasuke from now on. In the meantime, Sakura, it would be useful that you acted as if you never told me a word about this, so that you can still get a chance for him to give you some information. Can you do that for me?”</p><p>“Yeah, I think so,” Sakura nods, rubbing the back of her head in confusion. “But may I… May I ask you why is that you don’t prefer to just bring Sasuke here and make him talk, Tsunade-sama?”</p><p>“That’s simply because he won’t say anything that he doesn’t want to, and I’m afraid that’s a risk we can’t take at this point,” the woman patiently explains. “On the other hand, if you make Sasuke think that you didn’t dare to expose him, then you will earn his trust, and after that, it shouldn’t take long for you to find a suitable occasion to make him speak.”</p><p>“Speak about what, exactly?”</p><p>“This isn’t a decision Sasuke made on his own. Someone must have convinced him to leave, and it’s on you to find out who did it.”</p><p>“It sounds easier than what it actually is, but I can try,” Sakura says, even though she is pretty sure that Sasuke will be way more careful whenever she is around now, which means that she will never have it as easy as she had it last night again.</p><p>“Very well, then,” the Hokage says, showing Sakura a small, but reassuring smile. “You can attend your training now, and remember to act normal above it all.”</p><p>“Yes, Tsunade-sama.” Sakura stands up and bows respectfully, but she does not want to leave without making the last question. She links her arms behind her back, staring at the floor sheepishly. “But before I leave, I just wanted to know if you… maybe you found something about, um, you know…”</p><p>“Your parents,” Tsunade finishes the question for her. “Well, the squad we sent in search of them should be returning tomorrow morning. I promise I will summon you as soon as I obtain some information, okay?”</p><p>Sakura does nothing but nod in understanding, since she feels a bit disappointed –and scared– by the answer she received. She gives her thanks to the Hokage before quickly turning to leave, impatiently walking out of the tower as fast as she can.</p><p>She has so much to think about that she feels like there would not be enough hours in a day for her to organize her thoughts. Everything seems confusing and ridiculously contradicting.</p><p>Did she seriously do the right thing? Sakura is not sure about that anymore. Maybe Sasuke had his reasons to do what he tried to do and it was not her problem at all. Maybe she should not have interfered.</p><p>On the other hand, Sakura cannot help but feel like she did the right thing after all, as if letting him go were a big mistake that she would have regretted later on.</p><p>Nevertheless, the real question is, <em>is that all?</em></p><p>Is this the source of the problems that haunt her the entire day and prevent her from sleeping during the night?</p><p>Of course not.</p><p>Sakura might have been facing some struggles to put her ideas in the right place these days, and even been feeling rather confused since she still has not resolved how to differentiate one emotion from the other most of the time, but she is conscious enough to recognize the fact that the only reason she accepted to help Tsunade is that she needs to think of something else.</p><p>She desperately needs to find something that can keep her mind busy and far, far away from all the doubts and fears and speculations and unanswered questions that keep going round and round inside her head since she woke up just three days ago. Sasuke is a clear and specific target to focus on, and he is always around her –although he pretty much seems to prefer <em>ignoring</em> her rather than being a friend–, which is mostly why Sakura sees this whole situation as a very interesting way to kill some time, while also getting distracted from the mortifying wait she has the feeling will not end anytime soon.</p><p>
  <em>Besides, how difficult dealing with that pretty little boy would be?</em>
</p><p>***</p><p>Sakura seriously considers skipping her training session for the day while she makes her way to reunite with her team. She has barely managed to have a few hours of sleep in the past three days and the lack of rest has begun to affect her body pretty badly. The nervousness and adrenaline that helped her to stay fully awake the previous night are now vanishing quickly, leaving nothing but tiredness instead.</p><p>The first thing that catches Sakura’s attention when she gets to the training ground is the vision of two male, childish figures involved in a very active spar.</p><p>Sakura frowns in disbelief as she continues to watch her teammates’ movements. She would have sworn that Sasuke would not be in the mood for training today.</p><p>According to how it looks, however, she can affirm that the Uchiha has surely seen better days before.</p><p>“Well, it seems like someone has finally decided to <em>honour</em> us with her presence,” Kakashi mockingly greets her, jumping out of nowhere just to stop a few feet away and wait for her arrival.</p><p>Even though her sensei’s expression and position remain as impassive and nonchalant as ever, Sakura does not miss the almost unperceptively knowing nod he gives in her direction, wordlessly indicating her to follow his lead. She nods in return.</p><p>“Sakura-chan!”</p><p>A slight smile starts to form on Sakura’s lips at the sight of her blonde teammate cheerfully running towards her, but it fades away the next second as she witnesses Sasuke kicking him to the ground from behind in a rather aggressive, non-playful way. Sakura quickly approaches Naruto to crouch next to him and help him up, while Kakashi does nothing except for asking Sasuke <em>what the hell was that</em> in a tone that leaves the <em>I-know-you-are-going-to-ignore-me</em> thought more than clear.</p><p>As expected, Sasuke turns without even shooting a glance in their direction. Instead, he makes his way to the opposite side of the training ground, reluctantly sitting down on the grass and resting his back against a tree trunk. Sakura takes a last look at her teammate before turning to face Naruto, who has already recovered from the fall and is now taking a fight stance.</p><p>This is the first time Sakura actively participates in a training session since the incident, and it is actually a very good thing that, just as Tsunade previously informed her, she did not lose any of her intellectual or physical abilities, which is precisely why she is confident enough to confront each of Naruto’s shadow clones in the first place, throwing punches and kicks in all directions and taking them down before they can even put a finger on her.</p><p>Soon Naruto seems to decide he is done with shadow clones for now and continues to spar on his own. Sakura keeps dodging every move, but it does not take much for her to start feeling tired again. Her attacks become weak and imprecise, her body feels heavier than usual and her vision gets blurry, barely letting her distinguish some figures that suddenly turn to different tones of black and white.</p><p>Sakura cannot even tell where did Naruto’s punch come from, but the next thing she knows his fist is impacting hard, painfully against her cheek. She stumbles back for a moment but does not fall.</p><p>“No! I’m sorry, Sakura-chan!” Naruto cries out, probably a bit more dramatically than necessary, as he rushes to his injured teammate. He abruptly grabs Sakura’s face between his hands in an attempt to dissipate her noticeable confusion and force her to look at him. “Why did you do that?”</p><p>“I didn’t see it coming,” Sakura says weakly, still dazed from the sudden impact.</p><p>She gently pulls Naruto’s hands away from her cheeks when she begins to taste a metallic, dense liquid inside her mouth. She turns her head to the side to spit the blood, using the back of her hand to wipe off the drops that fell down her chin, wincing as she does so.</p><p>It burns.</p><p>“Uh, is that all?” Naruto asks, his eyes open wide as he blinks in bewilderment. “Aren’t you going to punch me too?”</p><p>Sakura frowns in confusion while she slowly rubs her reddened, already swollen cheek. She does not get where her teammate is going. “Of course not.”</p><p>“No, you’re wrong! You should be yelling at me and dragging me all over the floor!” the blonde exasperatedly tries to explain. He looks seriously worried about something that Sakura is not being able to understand.</p><p>“I don’t see what are you complaining about, Naruto. If I were you, I would be happy to discover that Sakura isn’t interested in using me as her personal punching bag anymore,” Kakashi remarks as he takes his time to approach them. He stares at his female student when he stops. “Are you alright?”</p><p>Sakura nods in response, and before she can even open her mouth to speak, Naruto interrupts her, still unsettled by the situation.</p><p>“But this isn’t like her, Kakashi-sensei!” he makes his point without yelling this time, but the concern is written all over his face when he turns to speak to Sakura again, taking her firmly by her shoulders. “This isn’t <em>you</em>, Sakura-chan. What did they do to you?”</p><p>
  <em>Ouch.</em>
</p><p>That was the last thing Sakura needed to hear right now. It is already too much pain for her to bear, and she was already starting to feel like she cannot stand it anymore.</p><p>Her eyes begin to fill with tears as she asks the same question to herself.</p><p>
  <em>What the hell did they do to me?</em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hey everyone!<br/>As usual, thoughts on this chapter are more than welcome. I'm just going to say that things will get a bit complicated...</p><p>Anyway, I hope you all are doing well!! Thanks for reading.<br/>xoxo.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>(In case that it wasn't obvious) I do NOT own Naruto or any of the characters mentioned in this story. Thank you very much.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sakura might not be able to remember the most relevant moments of her past, yet she does not need much proof to deduce that she has been having the hardest days of her short life. </p><p>It has been two weeks since the accident. Two weeks since her world changed drastically. Since she stopped being the sweet, innocent child she used to be before she was forced to meet with the darkest side of life.  </p><p>She has been told a lot of things since then, but there is no such thing as a magic word to make her feel better. The only thing that would really ease Sakura’s pain is to get her parents back.  </p><p>She also wants her memories back more than anything, because the hardest part of it all is not having the answer to a bunch of questions that have never stopped spinning inside her mind since the nightmare begun. </p><p><em> What if the key to finding them is in </em><em>my </em><em>memories? </em> </p><p><em> What if I never get my memory back? </em> </p><p><em> What if they are hurt and I’m not able to save them? </em> </p><p><em> What if they are out there still looking for me? </em> </p><p><em> What if I’m the reason why they went outside the village in the first place? </em> </p><p><em> What if it is my fault? </em>   </p><p>The morning Sakura showed up at the Hokage’s office to inform her about the events regarded to Sasuke, Tsunade made the promise to let her know in case she received some information about her parent’s disappearance from the squad that was supposed to arrive the following day. </p><p>And she did as promised, but the news Sakura received were more than discouraging. </p><p>Even though she had been reminding herself not to create false hopes, there was still a small, tiny space inside her thoughts that she had reserved for positive news. The reality was not in front of her eyes yet and her lack of memories could do nothing but leave blank spaces, ready to be filled by assumptions and imaginations that were painfully destroyed in a matter of seconds. </p><p>The squad did not bring Sakura’s parents back to the village, simply because they could not find them. They could not even assume whether they are alive or not, since the only visible clue they could find along the way was a delicate, peculiar necklace that held a small flower pendant whose bright, pink colour remained unknown at first, covered by a dark red layer of dried blood.  </p><p>Sakura’s heart stopped beating the moment Tsunade handed the necklace to her. She could not say that she had remembered something related to the accessory, yet she was able to recognize it from the framed pictures on the wall of her living room she had been so meticulously looking at the previous days, thriving to analyze every detail with the –already broken– hope of rebuilding some scenarios of her past. It belonged to her father. In every single picture Sakura got a chance to see, he was wearing that necklace.   </p><p>According to what the ninjas reported, the object was lying on the grass, almost hidden among an uncountable number of trees and fallen leaves, just a few meters away from Konoha’s main gates, which had actually led them to think that Sakura’s parents would be somewhere in the vicinity, but it did not take much for them to realize that was not the case. </p><p>Even though no one mentioned the detail to her, Sakura knew that there was more blood than what she was seeing on that necklace. Blood had been spilt in a place where her parents had clearly been. She just had to put two and two together, but actually realizing what that meant made her body tremble with fear and desperation. She did not expect to feel this bad; she did not even know her chest could feel this tight, heavy, and empty at the same time. </p><p>Tsunade told her that they were going to do as much as they could and that everything would be fine, but Sakura was not able to believe a single word anymore. Not when she felt this useless. Not when her parents were still nowhere to be seen. Not when she was holding blood between her hands. Not when she felt this <em>wrong</em>. </p><p>*** </p><p>It has been an entire week since then, since she received the news of her parents’ unknown state, and the only thing Sakura has been able to realize is that every day that passes, the pain gets more and more difficult to bear. Her head aches all the time. She cannot sleep well, she cannot eat well and, consequently, the daily training just keeps draining the energy out of her body over and over again.  </p><p>It has been exhausting. It has been so exhausting that there came a day where Sakura just decided to skip her training that morning and stay in bed instead, which caused her sensei to show up at her front door as soon as the training finished. All she did was telling Kakashi that she was tired and she just needed a few days to rest, and judging by the disastrous, emaciated way she looked, it was impossible for the man to disagree.  </p><p>Sakura has never been this sad before. Sadness is a word whose meaning has remained unknown for her for a long time, but right now, from the way everyone around her sees it, it is very clear that sadness is everything she can feel. </p><p>From Sakura’s point of view, however, that statement is not clearly defined.</p><p>She wakes up in the early morning with the warm light of sunrays tingling on her skin, forcing her to open her eyes. Uncomfortable with the intensity of the light getting through the window, Sakura turns her head to the opposite side of the room, where the clock located on the bedside table lets her know it is 7 a.m. She stares at the light green digits for a while before turning her attention to the framed picture of Team Seven that makes her wonder what could have happened at that moment for her teammates to look so annoyed, as well as for her to look that happy. </p><p>No matter how hard she tries, Sakura can't recall that scene inside her mind. The only proof she has that it actually happened is the photography itself, but what could she get from that? What could she get from a frozen image whose real sequence is a blank space now? </p><p>Nothing. Absolutely nothing. </p><p>Suddenly, along with the grief that visits her for the first, but not last time in the day, an uncountable number of questions start to formulate inside Sakura’s head. </p><p><em> What about my </em><em>first day </em><em>as a  </em> <em> genin</em><em>? </em> </p><p><em> What about my </em><em>aca</em><em>demy days?  </em> </p><p><em> What did I use to do when I wasn’</em><em>t training?  </em> </p><p><em> What was my </em><em>childhood like? </em>  </p><p><em> What was </em><em>my </em><em>entire life like before this accident? </em> </p><p>For the first time since she woke up without her memories, Sakura realizes she is authentically curious about her past. It is not that she has not been wondering a few things about her life before, because she obviously has, but she was not very interested in finding answers until now.  </p><p>After all, the only thing that has been occupying her mind these days is the uncertainty of feeling like she has lost her family. She might not have memories of her parents, yet she knows how important they are in her life. She feels lost without her parents, and so guilty that it hurts. </p><p>Certainly, she did not give herself the time to think deeply about something else before. Just a few random thoughts passing by once, maybe twice a day. But right now, she really needs some answers. </p><p>Feeling an impulse that Sakura is pretty sure was not there just a few seconds ago, she gets up and quickly begins to gather her clothes to get dressed for the day. She puts on a red short-sleeve crop top with the white Haruno symbol on her back, and a red skirt with black shorts that match it perfectly.  </p><p>Honestly, Sakura has no idea whether she likes the attire or not, but she finds it way more comfortable than the red dress she tried to wear a few days ago. Plus, the design of the different clothes in her wardrobe is very similar, so it is pretty much the same for her. </p><p>The following series of events is part of a very repetitive routine for the pink-haired kunoichi: she goes to the bathroom, brushes her teeth, washes her face, glances at her own reflection in the mirror for a minute, and finally, after concluding that she does not recognize the person in front of her –as usual –, <em> sighs</em>.  </p><p>The difference today, however, is that from now on, Sakura is decided to discover how she really is –or was, at least–. So, first thing’s first, she has to think of a plan to do it. </p><p><em> Or maybe I </em> <em>  could </em><em>just </em><em>ask someone? </em> </p><p>Well, that would be a good way to start. But the question is, <em>who? </em> </p><p>Who should she ask about her own past? Is there someone who actually knows everything she should know about herself? </p><p>Sakura begins to make her way down the village’s quiet streets while thinking whether it is better to talk with Tsunade or Kakashi first, even though she is taking the way that leads to the Hokage’s Tower. The sun is powerfully bright in the early morning and Sakura has to face the sun rays directly, which prevents her from seeing clearly the way forward. </p><p>Once that Sakura manages to get a better view of the street by covering part of her eyes with her hand, she visualizes a familiar silver-haired man walking towards her, executing every movement with a lack of speed that almost looks like some kind of slow-motion, which consequently causes for Sakura to wonder how is even possible that this man can be a good ninja at all. </p><p>“Sakura, it’s good to see you’re up already,” Kakashi greets her when they are close enough, stopping a few feet away from her. “I was actually taking this direction to pay you a visit, but it seems like you shortened the walk for me,” he says, impassive as usual. </p><p>Sakura nods respectfully to him. “It wasn’t necessary, sensei. I’m fine.” </p><p>“Oh, I bet you are,” Kakashi sighs, and Sakura does not miss the slight change in his voice when he speaks, sounding almost concerned. He turns to start walking again and motions for Sakura to follow him. “There are some things I’d like to talk to you about, by the way.” </p><p>“Like what?” Sakura asks. </p><p>“Did you have breakfast?” </p><p>“Um… No,” she says, frowning in confusion at the change of topic. </p><p>“Well, I think I know a place you’ll like, then.” </p><p>***</p><p>It is not like Sakura cared too much about choosing a place to eat at the moment, especially considering that she feels like she is going to throw up rather than being in the mood for food.  </p><p>She is also pretty sure that she does not remember hearing the name of Inchiraku’s before, which is precisely the reason why she does not know what to do with the strange sensation that grows inside her chest once she is inside the store. She looks everywhere, from right to left, expectant to find something that helps her bring some memories back, but to no avail.  </p><p>She places a hand on the table in front of her, letting her fingers slide across the wooden surface while she unconsciously keeps following her sensei’s steps, too busy reviving the first time she felt this way to pay attention to anything else around her. </p><p>Sakura’s mind instantly travels to the day she woke up in the hospital, where Tsunade tried to put her in context with the situation, and also tried, even though Sakura could say that horribly <em>failed</em>, to introduce her to her teammates. </p><p>When she first met Naruto, the boy who threw his arms towards her as if his life depended on it, she was sure that she did not remember him, yet she felt like she actually did. It was a warm, calming sensation that, at least for a couple of seconds, made Sakura feel that not everything was lost. She has not been able to find a word for what she exactly knows is still there, but whatever it is, it gives her a spark of <em>hope, </em>  for what she is kind of grateful to be experimenting it again<em>. </em> </p><p>“Sakura, it’s good to see you again!” a male voice greets her. </p><p>Sakura looks up to see the man in front of her who, judging from the way is dressed and how old he looks, she supposes is the owner of the restaurant. He smiles at her with an authenticity that makes Sakura wish she could say the same in return, yet she would be lying if she said that she remembers the man’s face from anywhere. Just like with everybody else, she is meeting him for the first time. </p><p>Before Sakura can even open her mouth to speak, the man decides to continue, probably noticing her inner struggles to find a name for the face she is seeing. He shows her a slight, understanding smile and says, “Sorry that I forgot to introduce myself; I’m Teuchi. This is my restaurant and you are always welcome here.” </p><p>“Oh…” she says, blinking in confusion as her look switches from Teuchi to her sensei. “Does he know about …?” </p><p>“This is Naruto’s favourite place to eat, you can easily find him here most of the time,” Kakashi explains, taking a seat as he motions for Sakura to do the same. “The night before the incident, you came here and had dinner with Naruto. Unfortunately, we lost track after that. This is the last place you were seen by someone.” </p><p>“Oh,” Sakura thoughtfully repeats, finally understanding why is that her sensei chose to bring her here in the first place. </p><p>“That’s correct,” the man confirms, and then turns his head to Sakura again. “I remember feeling that something was out of place that night. You were so lost in your thoughts that you weren’t even listening to what Naruto was saying. When he asked about Sasuke, you tried to explain to him that he was the main reason for your concern.” </p><p>Now interested in the conversation, Sakura glances at the man with genuine curiosity, feeling a little betrayed as well, because she remembers being told about that night and the dinner with Naruto, but little did she know that things were looking strange by that moment already. </p><p>After hearing such a statement, Sakura makes a mental note to gather information about the events before her parent’s disappearance, adding it to the list of things she has to discover. </p><p>“Exactly,” Kakashi proceeds. “Apparently, you were very concerned about Sasuke’s curse mark and the effects it could have on him. I talked to you earlier that day, by the way, and told you that there was nothing to worry about, but you clearly didn’t believe me.” </p><p>“Well... I was right, after all, wasn’t I?” Sakura points out, intending for it to sound more like a conclusion than an accusation.  </p><p>Her sensei nods quietly in return, nonchalantly scratching his temple as he says, "I can give you that, I guess.”  </p><p>Turning her attention back to the man that is expectantly listening to their exchange, Sakura asks, “Did something else happen after that conversation?”  </p><p>“Well, right after you went outside, I remember that I heard Naruto trying to convince you to let him walk you home. He insisted, but you ended up going on your own,” Teuchi sighs, thoughtfully looking at Sakura with a compassionate expression that is enough for her to guess what is coming next. “Now I just wish you had said yes to him.”  </p><p>“Yeah...” Sakura says, pressing her lips together in a sad grimace. “Me too.” </p><p>*** </p><p>“Who would choose ramen for breakfast, anyway?”  </p><p>That is the justification Sakura gives to her sensei after they leave Ichiraku’s and start making their way through the streets, which she considers is better than having to explain that she feels like she is going to throw up at any moment and she avoids eating as much as she can. </p><p>“Apart from Naruto, probably no one.” </p><p>“Then why did you take me there in the first place, sensei?” </p><p>“I could say that there are many reasons, but mostly because visiting familiar places can help people bring some memories back,” Kakashi explains, as patiently as usual, and then clarifies, “The Hokage’s recommendation.” </p><p>“I see…” Sakura says in return, still not convinced, but not interested enough to keep asking questions about it. </p><p>“I also thought that you could save this for later,” her sensei continues, giving her a plastic bag that contains some servings of ramen. “I can’t force you to eat, Sakura, but I know you have to.” </p><p>“I know,” Sakura sighs, accepting the bag and resolving it could actually be a good idea since she has not learned a thing about cooking yet. “Thank you.” </p><p>Sakura gets lost in her thoughts right after saying those words. Not even being fully aware of it, her eyes focus on the way ahead of them, eventually frowning in confusion when someone stares at her longer than necessary, but it, fortunately, happens once or twice in the span of a few minutes. </p><p>“Why didn’t you tell me those things before?” she decides to ask. “I mean, about that night.” </p><p>Her sensei sighs. </p><p>“Maybe you didn’t realize about this, Sakura, but you actually never asked. You showed no interest in knowing about your past with detail and we could do nothing but respect your decision.” </p><p>“I’m not sure it was a decision,” she muses. “It just didn’t occur to me.” </p><p>“It’s perfectly normal. Curiosity comes after you start familiarizing yourself with your surroundings, not before.” </p><p>“Can you help me with that now?” Sakura asks, taking the moment as an advantage to get where she wants.  </p><p>“Help you to know about your past?” Kakashi inquires. She nods in return. “Well, I’m afraid I don’t think I’m the right person to answer most of your questions,” he admits, “but I could say that I know of someone who will be happy to help you.” </p><p>“Who? Naruto?” Sakura squints, deducing that the word “happy” would never fit with Sasuke’s description, so the Uchiha is definitely not an option here. </p><p>Even though she cannot see very well, Sakura is pretty sure that there is a slight smile forming behind her sensei’s mask before he says, “There are many people in your life that you still didn’t get a chance to know something about, Sakura. But don’t worry, you’ll meet them all eventually.” </p><p>By this moment, Sakura is not sure if her sensei agreed to help her or if he is going to think how much effort would that implicate first, so she just chooses to thank him doubtfully in return.   </p><p>Once that they reach Sakura’s house, and right before the kunoichi decides to tell her sensei he didn't need to walk her home, he speaks.  </p><p>“Sakura, one more thing.” </p><p>Sakura turns to look at her sensei, silently telling him that she is listening. </p><p>“You did something brave the other day, you know?” </p><p>She frowns, unable to understand what the man is talking about now. “No, I don’t.” </p><p>“Sasuke would have left the village if you hadn’t been there. And since I don’t think you’re understanding the importance that it implies, I just wanted to point it out for you.” </p><p>“Oh, you mean…” the kunoichi begins but realizes that she does not really know what to say.  </p><p>“You know you don’t have to collaborate if you don’t want to, right?” </p><p>Considering that explaining to Kakashi the reason why she accepted to keep an eye on her teammate as if it was a real mission is something unnecessary for Sakura, she just nods politely in return and offers her sensei a small smile before she gets into her home.  </p><p>Deciding that she could really use a training session right now, Sakura goes to her room to gather a few weapons and gets out as quickly as she can, finding herself actually anxious to reach the training ground without a particular reason. </p><p>Much to Sakura’s relief, the place is empty when she arrives, which is something that she actually needs to train peacefully and see how far she can go. All she wants to do now is challenge herself, pushing herself to a limit that she is not sure how much would it take for her to reach. The Hokage told her that her level and range of abilities were right for her age, but Sakura does not even know what that means.  </p><p>The only thing she is relieved about is that her skills are still there, especially her sensory ones, because it is thanks to them that it does not take the kunoichi more than a few seconds to realize that she is not alone anymore.  </p><p>Sakura lets out a tired sigh while she drags her feet towards the trees and grabs a kunai from her bag before letting it fall on the grass. Guessing that the person around would be just one of her teammates, she does not really pay attention to the presence behind her.  </p><p>But the moment that she hears the sound of the wood creaking by a shuriken that has been violently thrown to a tree just centimetres away from her, she deduces that this person might not be very happy to see her there. </p><p>Just as if Sakura had all the time in the world right now, she slowly moves towards the tree to pull out the weapon, which demands more strength than what she actually thought. In case that thing had hit her, it probably would have left a serious wound.  </p><p>She finally turns to spot her dark-haired teammate on the other side of the ground, staring at her with an unreadable expression that left nothing but unpleasant feelings growing in Sakura’s stomach. </p><p>Not being pretty sure of what to do, the kunoichi raises the shuriken in her hand. “I believe this is yours,” she says, trying to sound as impassive as she can. </p><p>Sakura waits for a couple of seconds where she only gets silence in return, so she decides to speak again. </p><p>“If you were looking for a training partner, all you had to do was ask, you know?” </p><p>“I don’t want to train with you,” Sasuke responds, not bothering to speak louder considering the distance that separates them. Sakura can barely hear what he says. </p><p>“Good choice,” she shrugs with indifference, tossing the shuriken on a random place over the stone floor before turning to follow her first idea of training in the forest.  </p><p>She is not in the mood for arguing today, nor does she have enough energy to get involved in unnecessary fights. </p><p>Sakura grabs a second kunai from her bag and takes a few more steps inside an undefined path among the trees, throwing one of her weapons towards one of the hundreds of trunks surrounding her. She takes it as a base she can step on to jump to a nearby tree branch. And then another one further away. And another after that.  </p><p>The next kunai Sakura aims to a trunk is intercepted midway by another one that does not exactly come from her, causing for both blades to fall abruptly, quickly getting lost between an uncountable number of thick branches and numerous leaves. </p><p>That kid is officially beginning to drain out every inch of patience remaining inside Sakura’s body. </p><p>Letting out a deep breath of exasperation, the pink-haired girl crosses her arms in surrender and starts turning her sight from one place to the other to find her teammate, finally spotting him on a higher branch of the same tree she is stepping on. </p><p>“What do you want, Sasuke?” she asks, louder than usual so as not to be speaking in vain. </p><p>When the Uchiha finally decides to go down to Sakura’s branch, stepping a few meters away from her, serious and mad at his whole life, as usual, he speaks, “You made a mistake.” </p><p>Sakura has to resist a sarcastic smile before she asks, “Did I?” </p><p>“Yes.” </p><p>“Well, I personally think that I might have stopped you from doing something stupid, you know?” she begins, leaning against the trunk behind her. “It’s all about perspective.” </p><p>“You have no idea of what you’re talking about.” </p><p>Sakura internally swears that she can almost hear the sound of Sasuke’s teeth colliding forcefully with every word he lets out. </p><p>She gulps, tightening the grip around her arms. </p><p>“Would you mind explaining it to me, then?” </p><p>“Sure. Or what about we go to see the Hokage together so that she can hear both versions of the story?” </p><p>There is a fraction of a second where Sakura’s heart bumps hard, almost soundly against her chest. All her inner alarms are activated now, and she has to make a great effort not to show off her consternation, keeping her expressions and voice as neutral as possible. </p><p>It is not like this situation is a great deal to her, however, or that it affects her life in some kind of significant way. But she certainly was not expecting to be confronted like this. It caught her off guard and it makes it difficult for her to deal with it properly. </p><p>“I didn’t tell anything. To anyone.” </p><p>“You won’t take me for an idiot this time, Sakura,” Sasuke sternly says, slowly taking a few steps forward as he keeps talking. “You’re always visiting the Hokage’s tower.” </p><p>The outrage Sakura shows through her expression now is totally authentic. Even if she is, in fact, lying to Sasuke, and even if he is right in a certain part, she cannot stand him being like this, just insinuating that the only reason she has to reunite with Tsunade is himself and his fucking personal problems where she has nothing to do with. </p><p><em> Does this guy even have a particular reason to believe that the world spins around him or something? </em> </p><p>She can feel the heat increasing in the blood vessels that cross each side of her head; her temples hurt, and her heartbeats bump harder, louder against her ears. </p><p>“This isn’t about you, Sasuke,” Sakura spits out, her voice tainted with pure indignation. “I have to visit the Hokage so that I can be informed about the disappearance of my family. That’s my priority now, in case you don’t remember.” </p><p>Sasuke’s expression suddenly turns into a smirk that causes Sakura to grit her teeth in frustration. He does not believe a word of what she says. </p><p>“Good luck with that.”  </p><p>“What?” Sakura asks, frowning in confusion at the unexpected response. </p><p>“I’ve been alone since I was a kid,” the Uchiha explains, looking anywhere but the eyes of the girl in front of him. “They never did something to help me, neither did they explain to me the things I should’ve known by then. You shouldn’t rely on what they say, Sakura.” </p><p>Sakura opens her mouth to respond, but regrets it almost immediately because she is not really sure of what to say. After a few seconds of silence that she takes to process the words she just heard, struggling to decide whether they would be true or not, and finally understanding that she has no way to find it out, for now, she speaks. </p><p>“Why are you telling me this?” </p><p>“Because…” Sasuke sighs and Sakura can say from the way his eyes are slightly narrowed that he is clearly uncomfortable with the situation. “If you accepted to collaborate with the Hokage because she promised to help you find your parents in exchange or something, then you might just be wasting your time.” </p><p>“Hm,” Sakura takes a moment to say, carefully staring at her teammate in front of her. Too bad that she finds nothing suspicious in his behaviour because it means that he might actually be telling the truth. ”Thanks for the information, Sasuke, but that’s not the case,” she reassures him. </p><p>By affirming that, in fact, Sakura is not lying. She does not remember reaching any type of agreement with Tsunade in the first place. She was simply asked for help and, for some reason, thought it could be a good idea to say <em>yes</em>.    </p><p>But in the remote case that Sasuke was right, however… </p><p>“Sakura.” </p><p>The kunoichi is suddenly brought back to reality by Sasuke’s voice calling her, finding herself actually surprised to hear it closer than expected. She did not realize the moment her teammate approached her, and the moment she looks at him she wishes he had stayed right where he was just seconds ago. There is something about the Uchiha’s presence that makes Sakura feel strange and flustered for no reason, which only gets worse if she has to deal with his proximity. </p><p>“What do you want, Sasuke?” Sakura asks, almost as low as a whisper, trying her best for her voice not to tremble as she does so.  </p><p>“Listen, I’m going to ask this once,” Sasuke warns her, straightening his arm so that his palm is placed on the trunk behind Sakura, right next to her head. “So you better think before you answer.” </p><p>Not missing Sasuke’s gesture and feeling certainly unsettled with the seriousness of the words that followed it, Sakura can do nothing but nod cautiously in return, already understanding what the question is about. </p><p>“Look me in the eyes and tell me that you didn’t say a word about what happened the other night.” </p><p>Sakura’s instant reaction is to give nothing but silence in return.  </p><p>She does not need to get her memories back to understand the kind of relationship that used to exist between her and her two teammates. Even though she cannot perceive it with Sasuke as clearly as she does with Naruto, there is always a strong, almost painful feeling that makes her chest feel tight with every beat of her heart whenever she is around the Uchiha, and Sakura is starting to suspect that there might be only one reason why she has not experienced such sensations with anyone else yet. </p><p>And for a split of a second, while looking in the eyes of a person who, deep down, seems to be hopeful of hearing nothing but an honest answer from her, she wonders if going to the Hokage’s Tower that night was actually the right thing to do. </p><p><em> Such a shame that there is no way to change what has been done, huh? </em> </p><p>“I didn’t say anything,” she finally responds, swallowing the imaginary bitter taste of having to tell a real lie. </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hi!</p><p>It's been a while since I posted the previous chapter, and the only thing I can say about it is that it'll probably keep being this way since I won't have much time to write, especially after I return to the university in March. But here you have another chapter! </p><p>As usual, your comments and thoughts are more than welcome. See you in the next one, and Happy New Year! Stay safe please.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hi everyone! I hope you all are doing well.</p><p>We're discovering a few important things in this chapter, so I hope you enjoy reading it!</p><p>I also have to mention that I know absolutely nothing about Medicine or post-traumatic effects in general. The things you'll read here are the result of some Internet research added to a bit of imagination.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It is seven in the morning. Sakura is having breakfast as peaceful as her thoughts allow it. The table is uncomfortably big considering that she is the only one using it. Silence fills the space around her in the dining room that, she imagines, in normal conditions would have been replaced by informal, familiar chatter between her and her parents.  </p><p>But she tries to push those ideas away as soon as her sight threatens to become blurry with tears.  </p><p>For better or for worse, the unexpected sound of <em>thunderous </em>knocks at her door automatically deviates her attention. </p><p>“Sakura-chan!” </p><p>Sakura would be nothing but ashamed to admit aloud that all of her ninja skills fail the moment she hears such unwelcoming thumps. Startled, her body reacts without permission, muscles contract so quickly that the apple slice she was just about to chew slides slowly, painfully down her throat. She chokes, coughing out of desperation as she reaches for her glass and gulps down the water in it as if her life depended on it. And it probably does, indeed. </p><p>“Sakura-chan! Open the door or I’ll open it myself!” </p><p>“No, you won’t,” says a quiet voice from behind.  </p><p>“Are you challenging me?”   </p><p>“What?” </p><p>Inwardly, Sakura rolls her eyes with irritation. </p><p><em> You pair of idiots. </em> </p><p>She can tell by the heat that accumulates in her cheeks that her face is reddened, and a few tears escaped her eyes while she was struggling to get the damn piece of fruit down her oesophagus, so her vision is still glassy. However, she suspects that the two boys outside would start a real fight at any moment if she keeps making them wait on the other side of the door, and she would rather let them kill each other instead of having to separate them right now. </p><p>When Sakura finally opens the door and meets with the two stupid boys that she happens to form a team with, it takes Naruto less than a second to drop the little discussion with his friend and turn to throw his arms towards her, trapping her in a tight hug that the poor girl just cannot think of a way to escape from that does not involve punching the hell out of her teammate. And she definitely is in no mood to punch anybody today. At least, for now. Like, it is still too early for that.</p><p>Before Sakura can formulate some decent words to ask Naruto if he would be so gentle as to stop taking the air out of her lungs, Sasuke seems to notice her suffering and, surprisingly, decides to do something about it. </p><p>“Let go of her, Naruto,” he says, hands shoved in his pockets as he leans impassively against the closed door. “She can't breathe.” </p><p>Once that Naruto separates from her, suddenly turning towards Sasuke to grumble about something related to him <em>always ruining their moments </em>or so, Sakura can finally start breathing normally again. </p><p>“Would any of you guys be so kind to explain to me <em>what the hell </em>are you doing in my house first thing in the morning?” she asks, her voice loud enough to interrupt Naruto’s monologue of insults to which Sasuke is not paying the slightest bit of attention.  </p><p>“Oh, right, I almost forgot that,” Naruto replies as he turns to face her, giggling sheepishly as he rubs the back of his neck, suddenly remembering the reason why they were supposed to be here in the first place. “We--”  </p><p>“The Hokage wants to see you, Sakura,” Sasuke interrupts, ignoring his friend’s complaints with an ease that must surely have taken years of practice. “We'll walk you to the hospital.”    </p><p>Sakura heaves a sigh. <em>Isn’t it a bit too early to face trouble again?  </em> </p><p>*** </p><p>Even though having to reunite with the Hokage, no matter where or the reason why, usually represents a stressful, even hopeless event for Sakura that gives her nothing but bad feelings with great anticipation, she has to admit that walking all the way to the hospital by Sasuke and Naruto’s side made her feel a lot better this time. At least, she got to laugh a bit at the constant –and completely nonsense– little fights between her two teammates, which she recently concluded are mostly started by Naruto without a particular reason. Plus, Sakura would be lying if she said that she does not find certainly <em>amusing </em>the way Sasuke manages to ignore everyone so naturally that he does not even seem to put much effort into it. </p><p>Needless to say, it is definitely <em>not </em>that funny when she is the one the Uchiha chooses to ignore so boldly. But that is the only exception for now. </p><p>By the moment the three of them get inside the hospital, however, Sakura has to make an absurd effort to remain as calm as her own mind allows her, but it is almost impossible for her to fight against the recent memories of the day she woke up in a hospital bed, receiving what will probably be forever the worst news of her life. </p><p>Much to Sakura’s regret, things do not get better after Tsunade practically kicks Naruto out of the room –which she does not need to do with Sasuke, because this one is already waiting patiently at the entrance–, specifically clarifying to the blonde that they must head directly to their training session since the check-up could take longer than expected. </p><p>“If I find out that you are still hanging around by the time I get out of this room, I swear I’ll lock you up in here until I see that you learned how to behave, Naruto!” the Hokage yells from the threshold, causing for everyone in the hallway to stop whatever they are doing and turn towards her in silence. Everyone except for Naruto, of course, who thoroughly enjoys the art of ignoring his superiors with no regrets. </p><p>Patiently leaning against a wall inside the room, Sakura lets out a slight, ironic hiss before murmuring, “That could take forever...”  </p><p>“What did you just say?” Tsunade takes less than a millisecond to ask, turning towards Sakura with one of those glares that would make anyone fear for their life. </p><p>“N-Nothing, Tsunade-sama!” Sakura stutters, giggling as she awkwardly rubs the back of her head before quickly changing the topic. “Is everything okay?”  </p><p>After the Hokage closes the door, grumbling under her breath about something related to <em>a bunch of brats that are impossible to tame</em>, she walks towards the other side of the room, indicating for Sakura to sit on the bed in front of her.  </p><p>“I’m sorry for making you late for your training again, Sakura,” Tsunade begins, clearing her throat as she regains a serious posture. “But there are a few things I’d like to talk to you about.” </p><p>“I’m listening.” </p><p>“First of all, how are you feeling?” </p><p>Sakura shrugs, lowering her gaze to the floor. “I don’t know.” </p><p>The Hokage, whose reputation does not precisely sell her as a patient person, has to take a deep breath to calm down and resort to a way to make the little girl speak without being aggressive in the process. </p><p>“Sakura, there’s no way I can help you if you keep refusing to tell me what’s going on in here,” she explains, softly placing her palm on Sakura’s head, right over her headband. “Could you try to put whatever you are feeling into words for me?” </p><p>Sakura has to take a few seconds to think what to say, struggling to find an accurate answer. </p><p>“It’s really confusing,” she begins, raising her look to focus on a random point on the wall behind the woman in front of her. “Sometimes I just feel... so sad that I think it’ll never end, but right after that, I feel kind of empty, like there isn’t actually something there... I just feel nothing, but it’s a tough sensation to bear at the same time. It also hurts here,” she slowly presses a hand against her chest before continuing, looking at Tsunade in the eyes this time. “I don’t know how it feels to live without this pain, because I can’t remember it, but I know this isn't normal. I wake up every day hoping that it doesn’t hurt anymore, but it never happens. The pain doesn’t go away and I’m so tired of it...” Sakura murmurs, her voice breaking a little as she does so, and she is afraid of not being able to control her tears if she keeps talking. </p><p>“It’s okay, Sakura, you are doing great,” Tsunade comforts her, slightly squeezing Sakura’s shoulder as she watches the little kunoichi wrap her own arms around herself protectively, defensively, as if she doesn’t want to be seen this broken. “If there’s something else you consider important, just take your time to say it, okay?” </p><p>Sakura nods, doing as she is told and waiting for her body to stop shaking unwittingly, as well as for the tears that managed to escape to stop falling. “There’s something strange, by the way,” she says, using the back of her hand to wipe out some tears from her reddened cheeks. “When I see someone that I used to know, I feel something, and it’s different in each case. It doesn’t happen with everyone, or at least that’s what I think. I have noticed that every person that awakens some kind of feeling inside of me, always happens to be someone that I knew in the past, but whose face I still can’t remember from anywhere, no matter how hard I try.” </p><p>“Well, I’m glad that you’re actually able to identify those details,” Tsunade says, “That's precisely the reason why I had to let some days pass if I wanted to come up with an accurate diagnosis. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have known how much damage you’ve suffered.” </p><p>“But how is that even possible? I mean, I didn’t know amnesia worked this way.” </p><p>Before Tsunade can open her mouth to speak, a knock on the door deviates both her and Sakura’s attention.  </p><p>“Come in.” </p><p>“Excuse me, Tsunade-sama,” Shizune begins, poking half her body into the room. “I just wanted to know if you need anything else before I head back to the tower.”  </p><p>“I believe you could earn me some time if you took Nara Shikamaru with you on the way,” Tsunade crosses her arms, turning to visualize the clock located on the wall to her right. “Training sessions are about to start, so you know where to find him. I’ll be there as soon as I am done here.” </p><p>“Understood,” Shizune says, nodding energetically in return before leaving the room and closing the door behind her.   </p><p>The Hokage sighs, and Sakura can say by the expression on her face that she is mentally striving to find the most appropriate words to start explaining the situation. She silently waits with feigned patience, twiddling her own fingers on her lap as she does so.  </p><p>“Okay, Sakura, this might be hard to understand, which is why I need you to pay attention to everything I say,” she adverts, a bit more sternly than necessary, only continuing after Sakura nods in agreement. “All right. That being said, the first thing you should know about this condition is that there are several types of amnesia, and yours, in this case, is especially complicated.” </p><p>Sakura frowns. “Why?” </p><p>“Do you know why do we, as human beings, tend to develop phobias towards certain people, animals, or particular experiences and places?” </p><p>Sakura takes a moment to think. “Because we went through some traumatic event related to it in the past...?” </p><p>“Exactly,” Tsunade confirms as she moves to sit next to Sakura on the bed. “But there’s a curious thing about phobias or psychological traumas in general, and it’s that it is very common for people to not remember the experience that caused it in the first place. It’s a defence mechanism; you feel extremely distressed when you have to face that fear, yet you aren’t able to recall what made you so afraid of it at some point in your life.” </p><p>“It’s contradictory,” Sakura concludes. </p><p>The Hokage nods in agreement. “But even if it wasn’t, the only thing that matters here is that something similar happened to you.” </p><p>Sakura has to analyse the last part of their conversation in her head all over again so that she can find some kind of connection between what she is actually going through and the example given just seconds ago. </p><p>When she realizes that she certainly did not miss any word of what Tsunade said, and, consequently, there are still some details that do not apply for both situations, she speaks, “I understand, Tsunade-sama, but that still doesn’t explain why I can’t remember who I am.” </p><p>“It doesn’t explain it because your case has a peculiarity, Sakura. And that’s precisely the difference that I intended for you to see.” </p><p>Starting to feel tired of hearing so many confusing things in the span of just a few minutes, Sakura lets out a sigh of exasperation. “Please, just say it, Tsunade-sama. What the hell is wrong with me?” </p><p>Tsunade stares at her with a disapproving look that instantly makes Sakura regret what she just said. However, the Hokage’s intimidating glare softens very quickly. </p><p>“I’m afraid there is no type of amnesia that causes such symptoms, Sakura. Not one that arises naturally, at least.” </p><p>Silence<em>.</em> </p><p>There is nothing Sakura considers accurate to say in order to express the disturbing mixture of fear and confusion she is feeling right now.</p><p>“Wh-What does that mean?” she stutters. </p><p>“It means that it’s not a coincidence that you don’t remember what happened, nor was it caused simply by an accident,” Tsunade says, lower than usual, leaning towards Sakura so as to emphasize the importance of what she is explaining. “It was a provoked act, Sakura. Someone has intentionally induced you into this specific state of amnesia.” </p><p>Sakura’s eyes widen in surprise. “I had no idea something like that was even possible.” </p><p>“It is a well-known practice in the area of Medical Ninjutsu, indeed,” Tsunade proceeds to explain. “When there is a patient that has been through a traumatic experience, which somehow prevents them from having a normal life or makes it extremely difficult for them to keep going, we can let them know about the possibility of getting rid of those undesirable memories -as long as the circumstances indicate that it's going to be a coherent decision in the long term, of course-. Essentially, this technique allows the person to ease the painful effects caused by the trauma itself. It's very special, though. I don't consider it as an option most of the time.” </p><p>Knowing that there are still some things unsaid, Sakura does nothing but nod in response, waiting for Tsunade to continue. </p><p>“More importantly, the fact that your case, in particular, includes the loss of memories regarding your own identity, leads me to think that whoever did this to you may have had reasons that do not necessarily have to do with medical purposes.” </p><p>Sakura has no idea how to process that. Like, seriously. She knows she is not getting the full meaning behind those words.</p><p>“Regardless of how much or how little they’ve taken from me,” she says after a few seconds of thoughtful silence, “the simple fact that they actually <em> had  </em>to do something like this means that nothing good could have happened back then, right?” </p><p>“We don’t know that for sure, Sakura. But we will keep working on it,” Tsunade reassures her, reaching for Sakura’s hand and giving it a slight squeeze.    </p><p>Still not convinced, she gives the Hokage a sad, forced smile in return. </p><p>*** </p><p>Sakura gets out of the hospital with another flurry of confusing thoughts spinning inside her head. At this point, she already lost the count of how many times her hopes were crushed like this, and she would be lying if she said that she is not actually <em>sick </em>of it.  </p><p><em> The more things I know, the less I understand. </em> </p><p>And the less she understands, the more frustrated she gets. </p><p>However, Sakura does not have much time to continue overthinking the situation before someone intercepts her at the entrance of the hospital. </p><p>“Sakura!”   </p><p>Looking up to find the owner of a voice that is totally unknown to her, she visualizes a girl, surely about her age, running towards her with clear, and probably excessive precipitation. There is a span of a few seconds that she takes to appreciate how beautiful the other kunoichi is; she has long, straight blonde hair tied up in some type of ponytail, and a very peculiar tone of light blue predominates in her eyes. </p><p>Next thing Sakura knows, she is suddenly being wrapped in a hug that almost makes her lose her balance due to the force of the impact. </p><p>“Oh my God, are you okay?” the blonde asks, separating just a few inches so as to analyse Sakura’s perplexed expression carefully, probably worrying more than she should at this point. But Sakura says nothing in return. “What’s wrong with you, Billboard Brow? Say something!”    </p><p>Sakura blinks once, twice, and the third time she frowns with great confusion. </p><p><em> What did she just call me? </em> </p><p>“I’m sorry,” Sakura pronounces slowly. “I don’t remem--” </p><p>“Don’t you dare to say that!” the girl interrupts her, nearly yelling with indignation as she pushes Sakura by her shoulders with more force than necessary.  </p><p>“I’m sorry,” Sakura repeats, shrugging sheepishly. </p><p>Certainly, this is the first time she feels <em>guilty </em>for not being able to remember someone. The act of forgetting about a person that shows such concern towards her feels so wrong, especially because she knows that, apart from starting all over again, there is not much she can do to fix the problem.  </p><p>“Come on, Sakura,” she tries again, speaking more quietly this time. “It’s me, Ino. We’ve been friends since forever. How could you just forget about me?” </p><p>After a brief moment of tense silence, Sakura’s lips curve into a slight, understanding smile. She can undoubtedly confirm by the way her chest feels warm and filled with painless tightness that they actually were good friends.   </p><p>“Ino, I’m not feeling better than you with this,” she says, linking her hands behind her back as she takes a careful step towards the blonde. “I know we are friends. I really do. But right now, there are no memories of any of my friends inside my head, and <em> believe  </em>me when I say that it’s not any fun.” </p><p>“But why?” Ino asks, concern written all over her face as she places both hands on Sakura’s shoulders. “When I first knew about what happened to you, Asuma-sensei said that it wasn’t serious and you were going to be okay. Right after that, we leave on a mission for a few days and when I return, I just find you like this.” </p><p>Sakura shrugs, averting her gaze to the side in an attempt to hide the tears that start accumulating in her eyes.</p><p>She wonders if having to talk about this conflict with someone will always have to be this difficult. </p><p>“What about your parents?” Ino speaks again, giving Sakura’s shoulder a slight squeeze to get her attention. “Could you find out something about them?” </p><p>Sakura shakes her head, still avoiding eye contact. </p><p>Finally understanding that her friend is having a hard time trying not to break in front of her, Ino smiles reassuringly in return. “Don’t lose your hope, Sakura. We can still find them.” </p><p>“Thanks,” Sakura mumbles, feeling somehow comforted by the genuine affection she is receiving from the blonde.  </p><p>*** </p><p>Both Ino and Sakura skip their training in the morning, choosing to spend some time together instead, which is particularly convenient for a certain pink-haired kunoichi who has an endless number of questions to ask.  </p><p>Ino takes her to a place where she knows they are less likely to be disturbed, which happens to be the top of a tree deep in the forest.  </p><p>They spend the next couple of hours talking, about a lot of things. At first, there are so many things Sakura wants to know that she does not even know where to start. Thankfully, Ino takes care of that for her and decides to start from the beginning. </p><p>She tells her about their childhood, and the way they practically grew up together going through all those years of school, where they would be friends, but they would be extremely competitive with each other at the same time. Incidentally, she recognizes that those moments were very enjoyable for her, and also expresses her disappointment towards Sakura for not being able to remember any of them, since being rivals has always been the best part of their friendship so far. </p><p>Soon she continues travelling in time to tell Sakura about life after their Academy days, the kids they were teamed up with, and more importantly, the Chūnin Exams. Ino quickly sums up the incident occurred in the Forest of Death regarding Sasuke and the way he lost his mind for a moment, becoming the must murderous genin she and the other ninjas that witnessed the events had ever seen. </p><p>She excitedly tells her about how they happened to have to face each other in combat, which ended up in none of them making it to the next stage of the exam. Then, Ino praises Naruto’s self-confidence and battle skills while describing his fight with Neji Hyūga in the final rounds, and briefly mentions Sasuke and Gaara’s match with the sole objective of talking about the Uchiha with an admiration that Sakura seriously considers goes beyond the boundaries of sanity and prudence, but she continues to listen intently either way. </p><p>After hearing how the Leaf Village was brutally attacked in the middle of the exams, however, Sakura realizes that things might not be currently going very well around them, which leads her to wonder if the disappearance of her parents is just another consequence of a conflict she knows nothing about. </p><p>Well, that is actually the only thing Sakura is clear on; she does know <em>nothing</em>. </p><p>“Sakura, are you listening to me?” </p><p>“Sorry, I got distracted for a moment,” Sakura apologizes, smiling sheepishly at her friend as she realizes she certainly spent the last minute paying more attention to her own thoughts. </p><p>Ino cocks her head with feigned indignation. “Could it be that you're already bored with me?” </p><p>She rolls her eyes with amusement, a chuckle escaping her lips as she does so.  </p><p>“So, anything else you want to know?” Ino asks enthusiastically, satisfied with the fact that she made Sakura laugh for the first time in <em> God knows </em>how many days. </p><p>Sakura takes a few seconds to carefully think of what to ask next.  </p><p>“Actually, I’d like to know a bit more about Sasuke and Naruto,” she decides then. “About their past, I mean.”  </p><p>And even though there is not much Ino can say about Sakura’s teammates with great detail, she certainly knows a few interesting facts about their childhood that are pretty helpful for the pink-haired girl to understand a lot of things.  </p><p><em> Life has been pretty hard on them both, uh? </em> </p><p>*** </p><p>Sakura stays in the forest long after Ino leaves, despite the blonde’s insistence to walk her home. Truth be told, the less time she gets to be at home, the better. Because the feeling of knowing that there is something wrong just intensifies once she is indoors, defenceless. All by herself inside a house where there is no one to wait for her. </p><p>And that is exactly the feeling she needs to push away, at least for a while, in order to concentrate and think carefully according to what she just heard from her friend. </p><p>Not that the information is very useful to find the solution to her main problem, though. Because Sakura is aware that the real solution was stolen, taken away from her, and sadly, there is nothing she can do to change what has been done. However, getting to know a bit more about what was Sakura Haruno’s story before her life changed forever, and what is more, about what the entire village is probably still going through, gives her the possibility to draw some conclusions. </p><p>The first one is, with no doubt, that whatever happened to her or her family was <em>not</em> just a coincidence.  </p><p>The second –and less elaborated–, but not least conclusion is that Sasuke’s attempt to leave the village may be closely related to both the series of events occurred during the Chūnin Exams and the incident she suffered just days before he made that decision. </p><p>Whether she is right or not by supposing this, however, is something yet to be figured out. </p><p>Letting out a deep sigh, Sakura looks up, grateful to the thousands of robust tree branches above for doing her the favour of blocking the path of sunlight considerably. Warm days are nice, but the blinding natural light always gives her the worst headaches. The shades right here are just fine, keeping the wood cool at the touch along with the fresh breeze that caresses Sakura’s skin, so subtly that she can barely notice it. </p><p>Neither does she notice when her eyelids start feeling heavier than usual as a relaxing sensation of drowsiness blooms within her body, taking its time to take control over her mind until the point she is unable to keep creating possible scenarios or conclusions or any thought at all.  </p><p>Without even realizing it, Sakura surrenders to the tranquillity of her surroundings, falling profoundly asleep for the first time since she could even be able to remember. </p><p>*** </p><p>There is not a way for Sakura to estimate how much time she has been asleep, but that is not precisely what becomes her main concern the moment she wakes up, noticing that she is not in the woods anymore.</p><p>Not that she is in a specific place, anyway. In fact, she is moving. </p><p>Unwillingly, that is. Because she was clearly unconscious just seconds ago, and her feet are not even touching the floor. </p><p>Sakura does not need to open her eyes to find out who is carrying her on his back. However, she has to take a look at her surroundings to make sure that she is being taken home instead of any other place. Her vision is not only affected by the blurry effect of her barely opened eyes, but also by numerous strands of thin, black hair partially blocking her sight. Since she does not intend to give away the fact that she is awake for now, Sakura can only manage to get a glimpse of one side of the street they are passing, feeling relieved as she realizes it is a familiar path. </p><p>She keeps waiting patiently for the moment they arrive home, which fortunately does not take much longer. Once they are finally there, the kunoichi realizes her teammate opens the door using the keys she remembers keeping in her pouch just moments before she fell asleep, so it is not difficult to deduce that the boy had the audacity to take them out with anticipation, clearly with no intentions of waking her up in any moment. </p><p>Sasuke makes sure to be as silent as possible while he enters the house, moving so stealthily that, had Sakura been asleep, she surely would not have woken up.  </p><p>Too bad for the Uchiha that it is not the case, by the way, because Sakura is not going to let him go so easily. </p><p>He lays her down on the couch slowly, carefully. And even though Sakura cannot open her eyes to see whether Sasuke is staring at her or looking elsewhere for some reason, she is certain that there are a few seconds where her teammate does not move an inch from his position. When he finally turns to leave, Sakura reaches out her hand to grab his wrist, giving it a gentle tug so as to force him to face her. </p><p>Clearly startled by the unexpected action, Sasuke withdraws his arm abruptly, staring down at the kunoichi with a frown on his face. </p><p>“When did you wake up?” he asks, just as coldly as she expects him to be. </p><p>The pink-haired girl gives him a slight, innocent smile in response that only seems to confuse the boy even more. Maybe it makes him angry too, but she cannot tell for sure. </p><p>“Sakura, what the hell were you doing out there?” </p><p>Sakura lets out a heavy sigh as she reluctantly incorporates to sit on the couch. Not really in the mood to give unnecessary explanations, and considering that surely Sasuke could not care less about it, she comes up with a poorly elaborated summary of what happened.  </p><p>“I ran into Ino when I was leaving the hospital this morning. I spent some time with her and then just fell asleep, I guess.” She shrugs. And then looks up at him, curiously. “Why?” </p><p>Sasuke crosses his arms, something similar to a disapproving look forming on his face. Unsurprisingly, he chooses to ignore her question. “You missed our training. <em>Again</em>,” he reprimands. </p><p>Sakura raises an eyebrow. “And...?” </p><p>“Kakashi was worried.” </p><p>“Kakashi was worried,” she repeats, staring at Sasuke with a serious, yet amused expression. When he averts his eyes a few seconds later, Sakura gets on her feet so that she can face him properly. “Then I wonder what are <em>you </em>doing here, instead of him,” she teases. </p><p>Sasuke takes the hint in the blink of an eye, letting her know he does not like it from the way his brows furrow in a displeased expression. “You’re welcome, by the way,” he remarks dismissively, and then turns to leave. </p><p>Sakura regrets what she said immediately, understanding that, at this point, Sasuke might have more than one reason to feel offended. And she is not precisely making things easier for him. </p><p>“Wait.” She stops him, reaching out her hand to curl her fingers around the muscles of his upper arm. Sasuke turns, looking down at Sakura’s grasp as if she was making some sort of unforgivable mistake, as if she was not allowed to touch him like this.  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. It was stupid.” </p><p>That being said, Sakura lets go of her teammate’s arm, even though she still does not want him to leave. And, much to her surprise, Sasuke does not leave. He looks at her in the eyes instead, his gaze lingering on hers for a couple of seconds that are enough for Sakura to guess what Sasuke wants from it. </p><p>It is probably the only way he can make sure she is telling the truth, because he obviously does not trust her words anymore. Not since that <em>damn </em>day he was badly betrayed, falling into such a silly trap that he would have never expected to be there in the first place. </p><p>“Can I tell you something without you getting mad at me again?” Sakura almost murmurs that question, breaking the dense silence settled between them. </p><p>“I don’t think I can promise that.” </p><p>Sakura rolls her eyes, knowing how useless it would be to object that statement. She crosses her arms over her chest, letting out an almost desperate sigh. The sole thought of having to start this conversation is ridiculously unnerving, even though Sakura still does not know why. </p><p>“I know I haven’t been fair to you these days,” she begins, trying her best not to feel threatened by Sasuke’s penetrating gaze. “I also know that I owe you an apology, even if you can never forgive me for what I did that night.” </p><p>Sasuke clenches his fists, his jaw tenses as he manages to growl menacingly, “Go to the point, Sakura.” </p><p>She swallows hard. They both hate to talk about this. </p><p>“Have you ever wondered why?” Sakura stutters, still not sure of how to put her thoughts into words correctly. “There’s a reason why I did it, but you don’t listen to me. You never let me explain.” </p><p>“I don’t care about your reasons,” Sasuke snaps, “just like you didn’t care about mine back then.” </p><p><em> Well, that is actually a very fair point. </em> </p><p>“But I do care now,” Sakura says almost immediately, inwardly slapping herself as soon as she realizes this is not the moment to <em>think out loud</em>. Quickly reorganizing her thoughts, she takes a step forward, feeling frightened for reasons she does not want to dig in right now. “Sasuke, if the Sakura you used to know had been the one who found out you were leaving that night, what would have happened then?” </p><p>Sasuke frowns, unable to understand what the hell is that question about. “What?” </p><p>“Think about it,” she murmurs, reading her teammate’s confusion all over his face. “The Sakura I was before, the one who left along with my memories, the one who probably knew exactly why you were leaving, would have tried to stop you as well?” </p><p>It takes Sasuke a while to respond, looking into Sakura’s eyes so intently that there is a moment she wonders if the answer could be within them. But then she realizes that, without even knowing or imagining it, she might have touched a soft spot somewhere deep, <em> very </em>deep inside the boy. They were friends, after all, right? Or teammates, at least. Which means they surely went through a lot of stuff together in the past. Just because Sakura does not remember those moments does not mean they never happened. </p><p>Unlike herself, Sasuke has the possibility to see the change Sakura is undergoing, simply because he has something to compare it to. So, in the remote case that he cared about her just the slightest bit, then this conversation might end up meaning something to him as well.  </p><p>“Yes,” he finally says. Curtly, but honestly. </p><p>“Because I cared about you, right?” Sakura whispers, failing to normalize the exaggerated beating of her heart. She is way too close for Sasuke not to notice she is struggling to breathe properly, which she knows is really stupid, but she cannot help it. “And I still do, Sasuke. It never changed.” </p><p>Even though Sakura does not consider to have said something wrong or that could make Sasuke get mad at her, she is not surprised to see that he looks upset all of a sudden. He grits his teeth so as to suppress whatever he is about to say, and turns to leave with the intention of not saying a word instead.  </p><p>But she follows him just as quickly, stepping in front of him so that his way is blocked, determined to not let him go until she has made her point. “Please, Sasuke, I’m being honest with you,” she says, almost begging, which actually makes her feel wrong in some way. As if it was out of place, something she is not supposed to do for reasons she just cannot decipher. </p><p>Though Sakura’s words are more honest now than ever, it only seems to irritate Sasuke even more. </p><p>“Like hell you are, Sakura,” he blurts out, pointing an accusatory finger at her. “You lost your damn memory. You had no idea of who I was back then. You didn’t even know my name, and yet you expect that I believe a word you say?” </p><p>“But it doesn’t work like that!”  </p><p>“Stop lying!” Sasuke nearly yells with pure desperation, his voice sounding so incriminatory that it gets on Sakura’s nerves as it has never before. “I’m <em> sick  </em>of you taking me for an idiot!” </p><p>“Listen to me for once, Sasuke!” she yells back at him, feeling she has every right to do so since Sasuke never seems to be willing to listen to her. “It is true that I didn’t know your damn name back then, and that I didn’t recall your face from anywhere, but I knew that you meant something to me in spite of everything.”  </p><p>Still not convinced, Sasuke snorts. “That’s impossible.”   </p><p>“It is <em>not,”  </em>Sakura retorts, pretty sure that her patience will not last long if they keep talking like this without getting anywhere. She has to take a deep breath to calm down before continuing. “I don’t know how to explain it, but let’s say that I’m able to guess whether I know someone or not just by the way that person makes me feel when we interact, even if there are no memories in my mind that can match those feelings with the face I’m seeing. That’s precisely what Tsunade explained to me today. She says it’s just... a different kind of amnesia.” </p><p>The next seconds are filled with silence. </p><p>Sasuke blinks. Slowly. Many times, but Sakura does not bother to count. She is busy trying to read Sasuke’s dark expression. He looks confused, perplexed even, and still mad. As if he was trying to carefully interpret her words inside his head so as to make sure he did not misunderstand.   </p><p>“What does that mean, exactly?” he asks, his voice sounding low and cautious. </p><p>Sakura is not sure whether that is a good or a bad sign, but she continues to answer as honestly as she can. “I stopped you that night because I was afraid of losing you, Sasuke.” She pauses, needing to remind herself of the reason why she decided to start telling such things in the first place. “I felt that I had already lost so much so as to let you go so easily.” </p><p>“That still doesn’t answer my question.” </p><p>After a few seconds of silence, Sakura holds up her hands in surrender, aware of the fact that she may be giving up on what is left of her dignity without even questioning herself. And she is more likely to end up regretting it sooner than later. “It means that everything I told you that day was true,” she confesses, averting her gaze to the side when she cannot fight the heat that comes up to her cheeks. “None of it was a lie, you know.” </p><p>Sasuke’s eyes widen in surprise. Something dawns on him. “Oh.” </p><p>Sakura crosses her arms, impatiently waiting for some kind of response that, just a moment later, she realizes she probably will not receive. “Please, say something so that I don’t feel more stupid than I already do,” she says, reluctantly looking at the boy again. </p><p>Soon Sasuke’s brain cells seem to start working normally, because the bewildered look on his face is replaced by a very thoughtful one as he turns and takes a few steps to stand in front of the glass door that is not cracked. Sakura watches him intently while he stares at the outside. Absentmindedly, Sasuke brings a finger to his lips, his other hand resting on his hip as he silently strives to come up with something the pink-haired girl just cannot guess. </p><p>“You know what I think that means, Sakura?” </p><p>“Not really.”  </p><p><em> How could I know If you don’t tell me anything, after all? </em> </p><p>Without even bothering to shoot a glance towards her, Sasuke calmly says, “It means that it doesn’t matter if you can’t remember what happened to you or to your parents. If you ever come across the people who did this to you, <em> you’ll know</em>. Even if you can’t remember their faces, you’ll recognize them because you'll feel the worst sensation of your life. There’s no way you can mistake it.” </p><p>Sakura’s jaw drops. </p><p>Firstly, because she realizes that Sasuke is right. Like, totally right. But the bad thing is that <em>she </em>should have been the first to come to that conclusion, and it is kind of outrageous to admit that she was not able to think of it as soon as Tsunade talked to her in the morning. Because it is pretty logical reasoning, to say the least.   </p><p>Secondly, because if what Sasuke truly expected her to say by asking “What does that mean?” not only once, but twice, was something similar or related to the conclusion he has just expressed, then Sakura may have got it all wrong. Badly wrong.   </p><p><em> Uh-oh. </em> </p><p>If that happens to be the case, then Sakura has just confessed her damn feelings for absolutely <em>nothing</em>, because that was definitely <em>not </em>what Sasuke was pushing her for. He just wanted her to reason along with him, which could also explain why he seemed so surprised after hearing what she said. </p><p>Inwardly, Sakura slaps herself. Hard. Because it is what she deserves right now. </p><p><em> What would be dignity useful for, after all? </em> </p><p>Judging by the way things are going at this point, she guesses she will probably never know. </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Well, so you just know, Team Seven is finally going on a mission in the next chapter! We'll see what happens there.</p><p>For now, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. As usual, feedback is greatly appreciated. And thank you for reading!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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